iiil 


pill  ii#'''''-': 


EDUCATIONAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 


BY 
KATE   GORDON 

Assistant  Professor  of  Psychology,  Carnegie  Institute  of 

Technology.     Formerly  Head  of  Department  of 

Education  at  Bryn  Mawr  College 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
1917 


COFTRIGHT,   1917, 
BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


TME    OUINM    *    OOOIM    CO.    PRESS 


PREFACE 

The  course  of  study  which  this  book  presents  is 
designed  for  students  of  pedagogy  in  colleges  and 
normal  schools.  It  presupposes  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  psychology.  In  the  earlier  chapters, 
on  the  growth  of  structure,  and  of  sensory  and  motor 
capacities,  a  certain  amount  of  child  psychology  has 
been  included.  Not  every  item  so  included  will  be 
found  applicable  to  teaching,  but  the  aim-  has  been  to 
give  to  the  student  a  general  survey  of  the  phenomena 
of  growth.  In  later  chapters,  as  on  memory  and  rea- 
soning, the  procedure  of  certain  class  experiments  has 
been  reported  in  some  detail,  because  they  are  not 
published  elsewhere,  and  it  may  seem  desirable  to  the 
instructor  to  duplicate  them  in  laboratory  exercises. 
The  last  three  chapters  take  up  some  of  the  concrete 
questions  of  teaching  in  three  quite  dissimilar  school 
subjects.  They  are  intended  to  illustrate  the  way  in 
which  psychological  applications  can  be  made. 


m 


2051092 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PASE 

I     Introduction 1 

II     The  Growth  of  Human  Structure  15 

III  The  Growth   of   Behavior.       In- 

stinct        32 

IV  Instinct,  Continued       ...  46 
V     The  Growth  of  Behavior.    Motor 

Capacities 58 

VI     The  Growth  of  Behavior.     Sen- 
sory Capacities    ....  80 
VII     The  Learning  Process  .        .        .  101 

VIII     Imagination 127 

IX     Observation  and  Report         .        .  149 

X     Memory 156 

XI     The  Growth  of  Beason.     Logical 

Relations 180 

XII     A  Study  of  the  Syllogism     .        .  189 

XIII  Other  Aspects  of  the  Thinking 

Process 206 

XIV  The  Transfer  of  Training  and  of 

Ideas 218 


VI 

CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


XV     Attention,  Feeling,  and  Will.       .      226 
XVI     The     Psychology     of     Language 

Teaching 240 


XVII     The  Teaching  of  Drawing 
XVIII     Akithmetic 

References        

Index  


260 

270 
283 
291 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

CHAPTER  I 
INTKODUCTION 

The  Purpose  of  Educational  Psychology. — Psy- 
chology is  made  up  of  a  body  of  facts,  ideas,  and 
methods  of  investigating  the  mind,  which  have  grown 
up  more  or  less  in  isolation  from  practical  questions. 
In  the  business  of  teaching,  on  the  other  hand,  prac- 
tical questions  cannot  wait,  they  have  to  be  dealt 
with  somehow  and  at  once.     Hence  a  body  of  tradi- 
tion and  a  set  of  practical  maxims  which  we  call 
pedagogy  has  formed  more  or  less  in  isolation  from 
systematic  science.     Educational  psychology  is  the 
attempt  to  bring  these  two  together.    It  is  the  appli- 
cation of  the  methods  and  the  facts  known  to  psy- 
chology to  the  questions  which   arise  in  pedagogy. 
Subjects,  however,  cannot  be  applied  to  one  another 
in  any  final  or  wholesale  fashion:  we  must  be  con- 
tent with  such  points  of  contact  as  can  actually  be 
proved  to  exist.     I  once  heard  a  lady  say  about  a 
young  man,  "  Yes,  he  has  been  to  Harvard  College, 


2  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

but  he  doesn't  apply  it  to  daily  life."  ISTow,  it  is 
hardly  right  to  censure  either  the  young  man  or  Har- 
vard College  for  this, — or  even  daily  life.  Applica- 
tions are  not  of  this  large  sort.  So  it  is  with  psy- 
chology^ and  pedagogy,  they  cannot  be  laid  down  one 
upon  the  other  so  that  all  the  edges  fit.  There  are 
parts  of  psychology  which  have  no  bearing  upon 
pedagogy,  and  there  are  questions  in  education  which 
admit  of  no  psychological  solution.  But  there  are, 
it  seems,  many  issues  upon  which  a  fruitful  co- 
operation between  the  two  is  feasible. 

The  ideal  of  educational  psychology  is,  by  the 
introduction  of  appliances,  by  the  careful  arrange- 
ment of  tests,  and  by  systematic  records  of  conditions 
and  results,  to  build  up  reliable  evidence  on  peda- 
gogical matters.  This  evidence  should  include  (a) 
a  systematic  account  of  mental  processes  during  the 
successive  years  of  the  individual  lifetime,  the  com- 
plete histories  of  the  different  capacities — the  careers, 
so  to  speak,  of  the  several  instincts  and  emotions  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  memory,  imagination,  and  reason- 
ing. This  is  to  study  psychology  in  all  dimensions, 
instead  of  in  "  cross-sections  "  of  a  few  adult  years, 
(b)  Educational  psychology  must  also  designate  and 
analyze  the  mental  processes  which  are  called  into 
action  by  the  branches  taught  in  the  school  curricu- 
lum, and  by  the  other  situations  which  are  peculiar 
to  school  life. 


INTRODUCTION  S 

The    Meaning    of    a    Course    of    Study. — Many 

students  feel  that  the  more  "  solid  fact  "  they  can 
absorb  in  a  course  of  study  the  greater  its  value  to 
them.  This  would  be  true  if  they  understood  all 
that  went  into  the  making  of  those  facts,  and  if  they 
could  be  trusted  afterwards  to  apply  them,  or  to  re- 
shape them  under  criticism.  But  too  often  the  man 
who  wants  merely  results  cannot  use  them  because  he 
does  not  know  their  meaning.  Every  subject  of  study 
which  really  commands  human  interest  has  more 
problems  to  deal  with  than  it  has  solutions  to  offer, 
and  since  the  problems  are  its  reason  for  being,  it  is 
the  first  business  of  the  student  to  appreciate  their 
import.  Without  this  the  most  convincing  results 
or  the  greatest  array  of  evidence  is  devoid  of  interest. 
Evidence,  even  when  gained  through  one's  own  ex- 
perimentation, has  little  significance  for  us  until  we 
know  upon  what  issue  it  is  directed.  After  a  knowl- 
edge of  problems  comes  a  study  of  methods.  There 
is  not  only  an  historical  and  cultural  interest  in 
repeating  the  classical  experiments  in  a  given  field, 
but  the  student  may  feel  that  he  is  also,  in  a  modest 
way,  making  a  scientific  contribution,  because  every 
careful  verification  of  a  principle  adds  to  our  cer- 
tainty of  it.  Moreover,  the  student  who  has  greatest 
familiarity  with  old  methods  is  the  more  likely  to 
invent  new  ones.  In  the  third  place,  the  student 
should  have  some  acquaintance  with  the  typical  re- 


4  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

suits  which  these  methods  have  secured  and  the  uses 
to  which  they  can  be  put.  A  course  of  study  should 
aim,  therefore,  to  give  three  things :  1.  An  intelligent 
appreciation  of  the  chief  problems  in  the  field ;  2. 
Training  in  the  extant  methods  of  solving  them,  and 
encouragement  in  the  origination  of  new  methods; 
and  3.  An  equipment  of  facts  and  their  practical 
bearings. 

An  understanding  of  the  most  general  educational 
problems  involves  some  discussion  of  the  theory  of 
the  school,  since  this  is  the  social  institution  which 
handles  these  questions. 

The  Theory  of  the  School. — The  school  is  a  medi- 
ating agency  between  the  child  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  work  of  the  world  on  the  other.  Its  most  general 
aim  is  the  cultivation  of  character  and  the  training 
for  vocation.  The  character  or  cultural  ideal  in  edu- 
cation, which  is  expressed  as  the  production  of  a 
balanced,  well-rounded  personality,  we  inherit  in 
part  from  the  Greeks,  but  also  from  Eousseau,^  who 
said :  "  In  the  natural  order  of  things,  all  men  being 
equal,  their  common  vocation  is  manhood,  and  who- 
ever is  well  trained  for  that  cannot  fulfil  badly  any 
vocation  connected  with  it.  ^Yhether  my  pupil  be 
destined  for  the  army,  the  church,  or  the  bar  con- 
cerns me  but  little.     Eegardless  of  the  vocation  of 

^  The  numbers  refer  to  list  of  references  to  be  found  at 
the  end  of  the  book. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

his  parents,  nature  summons  him  to  the  duties  of 
human  life.  To  live  is  the  trade  I  wish  to  teach 
him."  The  vocational  ideal,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the 
making  of  the  useful  citizen,  the  producer  of  good 
works,  the  master  craftsman.  It  emphasizes  effi- 
ciency and  professionalism,  ^ow,  character  and  vo- 
cation are  correlative  conceptions.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  character  without  vocation  if  we  take  voca- 
tion in  the  large  sense  of  the  systematic  effort  at 
specific  results.  A  man's  vocation  is  the  external 
and  particular  pattern  of  his  life,  his  character  is 
his  internal  and  general  reaction  to  life.  Vocations 
are  the  great  objective,  social  types  of  human  be- 
havior, and  they  tend  to  give  that  unity  and  stability 
to  man's  impulses  which  we  call  character.  The  mat- 
ter may  be  summed  up  also  as  follows.  Any  kind 
of  training,  or  any  force  or  circumstance  which  gives 
"  balance,"  "  proportion,"  or  "  unity  "  to  a  person's 
life,  whatever  makes  it  significant  or  "  character- 
istic," is  educative.  Whatever  introduces  "  order  " 
into  life  educates,  nothing  else  does. 

Dewey  ^  writes :  "  Now  the  school,  for  psychologi- 
cal purposes,  stands  in  many  respects  midway  be- 
tween the  extreme  simplifications  of  the  laboratory 
and  the  confused  complexities  of  ordinary  life.  Its 
conditions  are  those  of  life  at  large;  they  are  social 
and  practical.  But  it  approaches  the  laboratory  in 
so  far  as  the  ends  aimed  at  are  reduced  in  number. 


6  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

are  definite,  and  thus  simplify  the  conditions;  and 
their  psychological  phase  is  uppermost,  while  in 
ordinary  life  these  are  secondary  and  swallowed  up." 
Let  us  follow  out  this  comparison  of  school  condi- 
tions to  daily  occupations  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
laboratory  procedure  on  the  other. 

The  School  Represents  Society  to  the  Child. — 
The  school  stands  in  symbolic  relations  and  is  for 
the  child  an  epitome  and  abstract  of  his  future  world. 
The  curriculum  is  derived  from  occupations.  Read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic  were  all  vocational  in 
their  origins  and  are  now  common  elements  in  so 
many  occupations  that  they  are  a  necessary  part  of 
almost  all  schooling.  With  the  division  of  labor 
the  types  of  vocations  have  become  so  numerous  that 
it  is  not  possible  for  the  school  to  give  specific  prac- 
tice in  them  all,  hence  it  is  constrained  to  choose  the 
most  important  common  elements,  and  to  try  to  hit 
upon  a  series  of  exercises  which  shall  be  as  repre- 
sentative as  possible  of  the  mental  and  physical 
requirements  of  the  greatest  number  of  important 
callings.  Hence  the  first  question  to  be  asked  of  any 
school  exercise  is.  Does  it  represent,  psychologically, 
any  real  situation  which  the  child  will  hereafter 
meet. 

The  School  as  a  Laboratory. — A  second  function 
of  the  school  is  that  of  analyzing  and  interpreting 
the  child  to  society.     The  teacher,  because  of  his 


INTRODUCTION  7 

daily  contact  with  children,  is  in  a  position  to  gather 
observations  on  them  as  no  one  else  can.  Teaching 
children  is  only  a  part  of  his  business,  learning  some- 
thing about  them  and  putting  this  into  communicable 
form  is  another  part.  In  the  ideal  school,  teaching 
hours  would  be  shortened  in  order  to  permit  the 
teacher  to  do  scientific  as  well  as  practical  work.  In- 
deed, the  gathering  of  scientific  data  upon  children, 
and  upon  the  methods  of  dealing  with  them,  is  quite 
as  important  a  function  as  is  the  business  of  actual 
instruction. 

What  is  an  Experiment? — Briefly,  it  is  "  observa- 
tion under  controlled  conditions."  Since  educational 
psychology  is  turning  more  and  more  to  experimental 
evidence  we  may  pause  a  bit  to  think  over  what  we 
mean  by  an  experiment.  Wundt  ^  has  formulated 
four  rules  for  experimentation  as  follows: 

1.  The  observer  must  be  ready  for  the  event  to  take 
place. 

2.  The  observer  must,  as  far  as  possible,  apprehend,  and 
follow  the  course  of  events  with  concentrated  attention. 

3.  Every  observation,  in  order  to  give  assured  results, 
must  be  capable  of  being  repeated  several  times  under  the 
same  circumstances. 

4.  The  conditions  under  which  the  process  of  conscious- 
ness occurs  must  be  controlled  in  such  a  way  that  we  can 
sometimes  shut  out  a  given  element  in  the  situation,  and 
sometimes  gradually  alter  it  in  strength  or  quality. 

Not  all  experiences  can  be  subjected  to  this  full 
procedure.     We  cannot  "  kindle  when  we  will  "  com- 


8  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

plex  emotional  excitement,  nor  can  we  command  in 
our  subjects  repeated  instances  of  creative  thinking 
under  the  same  circumstances,  l^evertheless,  it  is 
important  to  keep  in  mind  as  a  goal  the  ideally  com- 
plete experiment. 

An  experiment  is  an  abstraction  from  life  in  that 
it  chooses  a  certain  experience  and  limits  it  to  un- 
usually constant  conditions.  By  a  series  of  such 
simplifications  the  experience  is  analyzed.  For  ex- 
ample, we  know  that  when  we  are  lifting  heavy 
weights  the  difference  of  a  few  grams  is  not  noticed, 
whereas  the  few  grams  are  easily  perceived  when 
they  are  added  to  a  light  weight.  But  not  until  we 
have  abstracted  from  the  accidental  sizes  and  shapes 
of  our  weights,  and  have  run  through  a  graduated 
series  of  them,  do  we  know  this  fact  in  the  exact 
terms  of  Weber's  law.  Another  example :  it  is  a 
casual  observation  that  children  memorize  more 
rapidly  than  do  adults ;  but,  if  we  abstract  from  the 
varying  interests  and  habits  of  children  and  adults, 
and  set  them  down  to  the  same  task  under  the  same 
external  conditions,  and  under  similar  degrees  of 
pressure  to  accomplish  the  task,  we  shall,  in  all  prob- 
ability, find  that  our  casual  observation  was  false  or 
misleading.  One  more  example :  imagine  a  person 
looking  at  the  sun  and  then  noticing  that  wherever 
he  afterwards  turns  his  eyes  there  is  a  bright  spot. 
If  he  becomes  curious  about  this  spot,  he  will  sim- 


INTRODUCTION  9 

plify  his  experience  by  throwing  this  after-image 
upon  a  gray  screen  instead  of  resting  it  upon  any 
background  that  chances  to  be  present.  If  his  curi- 
osity persists  he  will  get  other  after-images  and 
throw  them  upon  other  screens  of  different  but  known 
brightnesses,  and  for  specific  periods  of  time.  It  will 
then  happen  that  regularities  appear  in  the  after- 
image which  are  imperceptible  under  ordinary  con- 
ditions. By  such  abstractions,  therefore,  we  may 
sometimes  confirm  and  refine  upon  casual  observa- 
tion, sometimes  correct  it  or  reverse  it,  and  some- 
times find  new  facts  which  are  not  attainable  at  all 
by  casual  observation. 

What  is  a  Measurement? — A  measurement  is 
always  the  application  of  some  old  or  standard  experi- 
ence to  a  new  or  hitherto  unanalyzed  one.  The  ob- 
ject to  be  measured  is  translated  or  resolved  into 
terms  of  the  old.  All  standards  are  arbitrarily  fixed 
by  social  conventions,  though  most  of  them  have  been 
suggested  by  natural  objects  or  events  which  seem 
apt  for  the  purpose.  At  first  only  rough  and  ready 
estimates  were  used.  A  distance  might  be  told  as  so 
many  days'  journey,  or  an  object  as  so  many  hands 
high.  In  Tahiti,  it  is  said,^  time  was  not  measured 
in  hours,  nor  the  intervals  of  the  day  numbered, 
but  they  were  quaintl.y  named  in  some  descriptive 
way.  For  a  very  early  hour  they  said,  "  When  a 
man's  face  can  be  seen,"  and  then  came,   "  When 


10  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  flies  begin  to  stir,"  and  "  When  the  rays  of  the 
sun  are  level  over  the  land."  Eventually  men  grow 
precise  and  develop  standards  which  are  capable  of 
ever  finer  gradations. 

Extensive  magnitudes  and  the  events  of  the  physi- 
cal world  can  be  measured  by  the  units  of  time, 
space,  and  mass.  Some  physical  measurements  are 
made  in  other  terms :  thus  Venn  ^^  cites  the  instance 
of  the  boiling-point  of  water  as  a  natural  standard  or 
point  of  reference,  though  it  is  not  a  unit.  With 
mental  phenomena  the  case  is  somewhat  different, 
although  here,  too,  the  event  may  be  said  to  be 
measured  when  its  physical  effect  is  registered  and 
measured.  One  type  of  measurement,  then,  in  psy- 
chology is  constituted  by  the  changes  which  are 
recorded  by  physical  instruments.  Examples  are  the 
deflection  of  a  galvanic  current  by  emotional  excite- 
ment, and  the  increased  pressure  on  a  dynamometer 
due  to  voluntary  exertion.  Another  type  of  measure- 
ment is  constituted  by  the  comparison  of  a  given  men- 
tal performance  with  a  group  of  other  mental  per- 
formances of  the  same  kind.  Types  or  norms  of 
various  sorts  can  be  determined,  and  any  new  in- 
stance can  be  expressed  in  degrees  of  approximation 
to  the  type.  This  is  similar,  also,  to  evaluating  a 
thing  by  reference  to  its  position  in  a  series.  When 
we  say  that  a  student  is  fifth  in  a  series  of  twenty 
we  have  made  a  beginning  of  measurement.     Eela- 


INTRODUCTION  11 

tive  position  in  a  series  is  not  at  bottom  a  different 
kind  of  measurement  from  that  by  physical  units :  it 
is  a  less  developed  stage  of  the  same  process. 

The  problem  of  educational  psychology,  so  far 
as  measurement  is  concerned,  is  to  discover  and  to 
develop  norms  for  a  great  variety  of  mental  per- 
formances. Typical  school  activities  must  be  selected, 
and  these  tried  upon  children  of  different  ages. 
Standard  achievements  for  the  several  grades  can  thus 
be  secured,  and  upon  these  the  teacher  can  base  a 
reasonable  expectation  as  to  the  children  under  him. 
It  is  entirely  fair  to  ask  from  experimental  pedagogy 
the  answer  to  questions  like  these :  "  About  how  long 
should  it  take  a  child  of  ten  to  learn  by  heart  Words- 
worth's '  Daffodils '  ?  "  and  "  Which  is  harder  for  a 
boy  of  twelve,  to  add  fractions  or  to  prove  simple 
geometrical  theorems  ?  "  Scales  for  the  estimation 
of  handwriting,  of  drawing,  and  of  English  com- 
position, etc.,  have  already  been  constructed,  and  give 
promise  of  great  utility.  The  conception  of  a  general 
intelligence  scale  expressed  in  terms  of  mental  age 
has  been  profoundly  stimulating,  and  will  be  the  lever 
for  dislodging  a  mass  of  pedagogical  tradition.  Some 
of  the  uses  of  such  a  scale  will  be  indicated  later. 

Some  Current  Fallacies  About  Teaching, — There 
are  several  popular  impressions  about  the  business  of 
teaching  which  the  student  of  pedagogy  must  examine 
for  himself.    Let  us  turn  in  particular  to  these  three: 


12  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

1.  Teachers  are  born,  not  made.  2.  Teaching  is 
learned  bj  experience  rather  than  by  theory.  3. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  "•  the  normal  child." 

1.  If  teachers  are  born  and  not  made,  they  re- 
semble in  this  respect  every  other  human  being.  That 
is  to  say,  every  man  is  born  with  certain  caj^acities, 
and  if  he  follows  a  vocation  which  is  congenial  to 
them  he  is  a  "  born  lawyer,"  a  "  born  carpenter,"  or 
a  "  born  teacher,"  as  the  case  may  be.  It  is  obviously 
desirable  that  every  one,  whether  teacher  or  not, 
should  practise  the  calling  for  which  he  is  by  nature 
fitted.  But  natural  capacity  alone  will  never  insure 
skill,  and  where  the  teaching  instinct  does  exist,  it 
must,  like  every  other  instinct,  express  itself  in 
specific  habits  which  are  capable  of  modification  for 
good  or  for  ill.  The  teacher,  therefore,  however 
"  born  "  he  be,  cannot  afford  to  neglect  these  chances 
of  modification.  He  needs  both  training  and  instruc- 
tion. 

2.  It  is  true  that,  without  experience,  insight  into 
teaching  is  incomplete,  but  it  is  by  no  means  true 
that  experience  by  itself  can  make  a  good  teacher. 
Experience  alone  teaches  nothing.  Only  the  mind 
which  interrogates,  analyzes,  and  systematizes  its  ex- 
periences learns  anything  from  them.  We  can  make 
experience  teach  us  something,  but  we  cannot  rely 
upon  it  to  do  so  while  we  sit  down  in  the  shade. 

3.  "  The  '  normal  '  child  does  not  exist."    Modern 


INTRODUCTION  13 

schoolmen  rightly  insist  that  any  single  child  is  an 
individual  rather  than  a  normal  child,  and  that  when 
all  that  we  know  about  "  children  "  has  been  said, 
there  still  remains  the  problem  of  finding  out  whether 
any  of  it  is  true  for  the  particular  specimen  in  ques- 
tion. This  important  truth  has  impressed  some  writ- 
ers to  such  a  degree  that  they  quite  fail  to  see  any 
validity  in  "  the  child."  Thus  Davenport  '^  says : 
''  The  child-mind  is  a  pure  abstraction.  Actually,  we 
have  the  minds  of  various  children  which  are,  in  the 
extreme,  so  unlike  that  they  have  few  features  in 
common  .  .  .  '  the  normal  '  is  itself  a  scholastic  and 
pedantic  figure  of  speech  and  does  not,  strictly  speak- 
ing, correspond  with  anything  found  in  nature." 
Such  remarks  have  a  value  as  a  warning  against  the 
wrong  use  of  abstractions.  But  to  deny  that  norms 
have  any  validity,  and  to  suppose  that  the  conception 
of  "  the  child "  performs  no  service  to  pedagogy,  is 
to  deny  the  possibility  of  general  laws.  These  ab- 
stractions most  emphatically  are  not  "  found  in 
nature,"  they  are  made  by  hard  toil,  and  are  the 
means  by  which  man  understands  and  controls  nature. 
It  is  only  through  generalizations  that  one  man  can 
pass  on  to  others  his  experiences.  If,  therefore,  there 
were  really  no  "  features  in  common  "  among  indi- 
vidual children,  then  it  would  be  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish "  the  child  "  from  "  the  adult,"  and  impos- 
sible for  one  teacher  to  learn  from  another  or  to  learn 


14  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

from  his  own  past  experience  with  children.  To 
some  minds  it  may  seem  intolerably  vague  and  futile 
to  say  that  we  have  several  kinds  of  treatment  which 
will  fit  "  the  child  "  only  we  do  not  know  which  of 
the  lot  to  use  in  any  particular  case.  As  well  not 
know  at  all.  But  the  situation  is  like  that  of  the 
man  who  was  sent  to  unlock  a  door  and  was  given  a 
bunch  of  keys  to  do  it  with.  He  did  not  know  which 
was  the  right  key,  so  he  left  them  all  behind.  Peda- 
gogy can  put  into  the  teacher's  hand  a  bunch  of  keys, 
but  it  cannot  anticipate  the  exact  moment  at  which 
each  one  is  to  be  used. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE    GROWTH    OF    HUMAN    STRUCTURE 

General  Curves  of  Growth. — As  a  preliminary  to 
the  study  of  growth  proper,  it  is  appropriate  to  gain 
some  idea  of  the  percentage  of  all  persons  born  which 
survives  at  each  stage  of  human  life.  The  follow- 
ing statement  is  taken  from  Rapeer :  ^ 

"  1.  One-fifth  of  all  the  children  born  each  year  in 
this  country  die  before  they  are  a  year  old,  approxi- 
mately a  half-million.  ...  2."  Half  of  the  persons 
born  in  our  country  die  before  they  are  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  and  about  half  of  these  before  the  age 
of  five.  ...  3.  The  average  age  of  persons  dying  is 
gradually  rising,  but  is  still  below  the  age  of  forty — 
near  thirty-eight."  The  curve  in  Fig.  1,  also  from 
Rapeer,  shows  the  number  of  persons  dying  per  1,000 
of  population  at  different  ages.  These  are  statistics 
for  ten  states.  A  large  part  of  infant  mortality  is 
known  to  be  due  to  preventable  causes,  hence  the  first 
phase  of  this  curve  probably  records  a  social  fact  (i.e., 
deaths  due  to  neglect  or  ignorance)  as  well  as  a  physi- 
ological one.  Yet  when  we  compare  this  mortality 
curve  with  the  curves  of  growth  given  below,  the  idea 

15 


16 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


is  suggested  that  in  this  early  period  the  rapid  and 
profound  changes  which  occur  in  the  organism  leave 
it  less  resistant  to  disease.  In  later  phases  of  growth 
there  is  conflicting  evidence  as  to  the  connection  be- 
tween rapid  growth  and  liability  to  disease. 

The  most  apparent  of  the  gross  differences  in  struc- 




1 

r 

160 

^ 

/ 

/ 

130 

/ 

120 

/ 

y 

100 

/ 

90 

' 

80 

, 

60 

i 

/ 

.40 

/ 

/ 

20 

V 

^ 

y 

10 
6 

\ 



"^-' 

^■ 

"? 

cr> 

3 

Ol 

S 

25 

34 

35 

-44 

45 

54 

56 

■64 

65- 

74 

74  a 

nd 

over 

s   s  ^ 


YEARS 
Fig.  1. 


turc  between  the  child  and  the  adult  are  those  of 
height  and  weight.  Keference  to  the  accompanying 
figure  from  Roberts  ^  and  the  tables  of  Boas  ^  brings 
out  certain  important  points.  There  are  periods  of 
accelerated,  and  others  of  retarded,  growth.  The  first 
year  of  life  is  that  of  most  rapid  change:  the  child, 


GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE         17 

at  the  end  of  his  first  year,  has  gained  about  thirty- 
three  per  cent,  in  height  and  about  two  hundred  per 
cent,  in  weight,  a  rate  of  increase  which  he  will  never 
reach  again.  There  is  a  time  of  quickened  growth 
also  between  the  sixth  and  eighth  years,  then  a  slow- 
ing of  the  rate  till  about  the  age  of  ten  for  girls, 
and  twelve  for  boys,  when  the  prepubertal  accelera- 
tion begins. 


0 

6 

1( 

YEARS 

15                20              25304055 

X 

y 

/ 

----- 

50 
40 
80 

y 

-: 

/ 
/ , 

I 

// 
II 

< 

1 
1 

# 

// 
// 

20 

X 

10 

ft 

/ 

\ 

Women  - 



Fig.  2. 


18  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

TABLE  I 

Average  American  Height 

Mathematically  calculated  by  Dr.  Franz  Boas  from  the 
data  of  45,151  boys  and  43,298  girls  in  the  cities  of 
Boston,  St.  Louis,  Milwaukee,  Worcester,  Toronto, 
and  Oakland  (Cal.)  ;  also  the  absolute  and  the  per- 
centage annual  increase  of  same. 


, 

Boys 

GlrlB- 

. 

gas 
.2  a, 
H  be 

22 

og 

s  « 
■s  > 

as 

^  o 

a 
«•- 

V 
03 

C 
B 

=  S 

a,  Z 

5  E 

ii 

w 

o  o 
»-  a 

"I 

§9 

O  01 

<1S 

4> 

^  s 

v  Z 

«  a 
c  " 

<K   01 

5.5 

1,535 

41.7 

1,260 

41.3 

6.5 

3,975 

43.9 

2.2 

5.3 

3,618 

43.3 

2.0 

4.8 

7.5 

5.379 

46.0 

2.1 

4.8 

4,913 

45.7 

2.4 

5.5 

8.5 

5,633 

48.8 

2.8 

6.1 

5,289 

47.7 

2.0 

4.4 

9.5 

5,531 

50.0 

1.2 

2.5 

5,132 

49.7 

2.0 

4.2 

10.5 

5,151 

51.9 

1.9 

3.8 

4,827 

51.7 

2.0 

4.0 

11.5 

4,759 

53.6 

1.7 

3.3 

4,507 

53.8 

2.1 

4.1 

12.5 

4,205 

55.4 

1.8 

3.4 

4,187 

56.1 

2.3 

4.3 

13.5 

3,573 

57.5 

2.1 

3.8 

3.411 

58.5 

2.4 

4.3 

14.5 

2,518 

60.0 

2.5 

4.3 

2,537 

60.4 

1.9 

3.2 

15.5 

1,481 

62.9 

2.9 

4.8 

1,656 

61.6 

1.2 

2.0 

16.5 

753 

64.9 

2.0 

3.2 

1,171 

62.2 

0.6 

1.0 

17.5 

429 

66.5 

1.6 

2.5 

790 

62.7 

0.5 

0.8 

18.5 

229 

67.4 

0.9 

1.4 

GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE         19 


Average  American  Weight 

Mathematically  calculated  from  the  data  of  about  68,000 
children  in  the  cities  of  Boston,  St.  Louis,  and  Mil- 
waukee; also  absolute  and  percentage  annual  increase 
of  same. 


, 

Boys 

Girls 

* 

Age 

Average 
for  each 

age 
pounds 

Absolute 
annual 
increase 
pounds 

Annual 
increase 
per  cent. 

Average 
for  each 

age 
pounds 

Absolute 
annual 

increase 
pounds 

Annual 
increase 
per  cent, 

6.5 

45.2 

43.4 

7.5 

49.5 

4.3 

9.5 

47.7 

4.3 

9.9 

8.5 

54.5 

5.0 

10.1 

52.5 

4.8 

10.0 

9.5 

59.6 

5.1 

9.3 

57.4 

4.9 

9.3 

10.5 

65.4 

5.8 

9.7 

62.9 

5.5 

9.6 

11.5 

70.7 

5.3 

8.1 

69.5 

6.6 

10.5 

12.5 

76.9 

6.2 

8.7 

78.7 

9.2 

13.2 

13.5 

84.8 

7.9 

10.3 

88.7 

10.0 

12.7 

14.5 

95.2 

10.4 

12.3 

98.3 

9.6 

11.9 

15.5 

107.4 

12.2 

12.8 

106.7 

8.4 

8.5 

16.5 

121.0 

13.6 

12.7 

112.3 

5.6 

5.2 

17.5 

115.4 

3.1 

2.8 

18.5 

114.9 

Comparative    Growth   of   Different    Parts. — The 

relative  size  of  various  organs  is  conspicuously  dif- 
ferent in  the  child  and  in  the  adult.  Kirkpatrick  ^^ 
has  brought  together  these  proportions: 


Height  of  head  of  adult  to  that  of  an  infant  2    :  1 

Length  of  body   "       "       "       "     ''     "        ''  3:1 

«         u  2iXia     "       "       "       "     "     "         "  4:1 

((         ii  ipg,       «       «       «       «     «     u         ((  5*1 


20  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

A  table  of  the  relative  weights  of  different  organs 
has  been  constructed  by  Vierordt  ^^  as  follows  (Table 
II).     Another  way  of  expressing  these  relations  is 

TABLE  II 

Percentage  Weight 

In  New-born—  Adults— 

per  cent.  per  cent. 

Skeleton    16.7  15.35 

Muscles  23.4  43.09 

Skin 11.3  6.30 

Brain 14,34  2.37 

Spinal  cord    0.20  0.067 

Eyes 0.28  0.023 

Salivary   glands    0.24  0.12 

Thyroid  gland  0.24  0.05 

Lungs    2.16  2.01 

Heart 0.89  0.52 

Thymus  gland 0.54  0.0086 

Stomach  and  intestines    2.53  2.34 

Pancreas   0.12  0.15 

Liver   4.39  2.77 

Spleen   0.41  0.346 

Suprarenal  capsules 0.31  0.014 

Kidneys 0.88  0.48 

Testicles   0.037  0.08 

to  say  that  the  body  as  a  whole  increases  about  twenty 
times  in  weight  while,  e.g.,  the  heart  increases  from 
twelve  to  thirteen  times,  the  brain  increases  four 
times,  the  muscles  nearly  forty  times,  etc.  The  sub- 
joined diagram  from  Roberts,^  Fig.  3,  gives  the  rate 
of  growth  in  inches  for  various  divisions  of  the  body 
from  birth  to  the  age  of  twenty-five. 


GROWTH  OF  HUxMAN  STRUCTURE        21 


-:  ^^  sfe 

§ 

g 

g 

s 

<t) 

r*'  1 1 

>■ 

a 
m 

v 

^ 

^- 

V 

\ 

\ 

^, 

-> 

\ 

^ 

\1 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

^^ 

\ 
\ 

N 

\ 

\ 

\1 

V 

^ 

\, 

\ 

A 

\ 
\ 
\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

V 

l 

A 

\ 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\\ 

\^ 

V 

\ 

i 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

o 

' 

\\ 

\ 

V 

\ 

\ 

w 

\ 

1  \ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

w 

\ 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

y 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

M 

\ 

\ 

V 

A 

M 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

' 

i 

\ 

1 

<i? 

1 

1 

« 

22 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


The  growth  of  the  brain,  in  respect  to  weight,  is 
represented  in  Fig.  4,  taken  from  Donaldson  ^^  after 
Vierordt.  The  form  of  the  curve  contrasts  with  that 
for  growth  in  general  bodj  weight  in  the  relatively 
slight  increase  after  the  age  of  five  or  six. 


1600 


1400 


J2Q0 


1000 


soo 


6D0 


400 


200 


AGE 

6   8  10  12  14  16  18  20  22  24 


.<^ 

/\ 

r 

s^ 

^y 

^, 

y 

^ 

^    / 

/ 

N^ 

\ 

i 

s 

/ 

La 
\ 

f'' 

1 

^^. 

,J 

^  / 

v. 

/ "' 

--^ 

■»•« 

/ 

/ 

V 

,/ 

^ 

/ 

jl 

jl 

I 

[1 

1 

Fig.  4. 


General  Factors  Affecting  Growth. — The  influ- 
ence of  age  and  of  sex  is  indicated  in  the  curves  al- 
ready presented.  There  are  also  race  peculiarities  in 
the  matter  of  growth.  Some  races  complete  their 
growth  earlier  than  do  others.     The  following  points 


GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE         23 

are  given  by  Reche  "  concerning  the  growth  of  the 
Melanesian  children  whom  he  studied.  The  growth 
of  these  chiklren  ends  about  a  year  earlier  than  the 
growth  of  Europeans.  They  do  not,  however,  mature 
until  the  period  of  growth  is  complete,  and  this  is  at 
seventeen  for  the  girls.  The  girls  are,  on  the  aver- 
age, larger  than  the  boys  during  the  entire  growth 
period,  and  only  when  the  girls  have  stopped  growing 
do  the  boys  overtake  them.  These  items  serve  to 
illustrate  how  curiously  growth  phenomena  may  vary 
from  race  to  race. 

Another  general  aspect  of  growth  is  its  seasonal 
variation.  The  tables  cited  above  give  only  the  an- 
nual changes,  but  some  investigators  report  that  there 
are  also  regular  fluctuations  within  the  year.  Schmid- 
Monnard,^^  who  studied  the  school  children  of  Halle, 
found  that  for  increase  in  height  there  is  a  favorable 
period  from  February  to  August,  and  an  unfavorable 
one  from  September  to  January,  whereas  for  increase 
in  weight  the  favorable  period  is  from  July  to  Janu- 
ary, the  unfavorable  from  February  to  June.  Cer- 
tain factors  have  a  retarding  effect  upon  growth; 
for  example,  disease,  malnutrition,  and  entrance  into 
school.  Statistics  from  some  of  the  German  schools 
bear  witness  that  children  usually  lose  in  weight,  or 
at  least  fail  to  gain  the  normal  amount,  during  the 
first  few  months  of  school  life.  Winch,  also,  in 
London  maintains  that  early  entrance  into  school  is 


24  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

undesirable,  since  it  has  a  depressing  effect  on  physi- 
cal well-being,  without  any  compensating  educa- 
tional advantage. 

It  has  been  observed,  finally,  that  the  social  status 
of  parents  is  a  factor  which  tells  in  the  growth  of 
children.  Economic  prosperity  is  taken  as  a  rough 
index  of  social  status,  and  investigations  both  in 
Europe  and  in  America  show  that  the  children  of 
well-to-do  parents  are  taller  and  heavier  than  the 
children  of  poor  parents.  A  striking  piece  of  evi- 
dence comes  from  the  report  of  the  School  Board  of 
Glasgow,  quoted  in  Mangold.^*  Children  were  di- 
vided into  groups  on  the  basis  of  housing  con- 
ditions ;  that  is,  according  as  they  came  from  a  family 
living  in  a  one-room  house,  a  two-room  house,  etc. 
Table  III  gives  the  results  reported. 

TABLE  III 

Weight  (pounds)  Height  (inches) 

Living  in                                         Boys           Girls  Boys           Girls 

One-room  house   52.6         51.5  46.6         46.3 

Two-room      "       56.1         54.8  48.1        47.3 

Three-  "         "        60.6         59.4  50.0         49.6 

Four  or  more 64.3         65.5  51.3         51.6 

Connections  Between  Mental  and  Physical 
Growth. — In  a  general  way  it  is  true  that  a  normal 
physical  growth  and  a  normal  mental  growth  go  to- 
gether, but  a  number  of  special  questions  arise  which 
show  that  the  relationship  is  far  from  a  simple  one. 


GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE         25 

First,  is  it  true  of  people  in  general  that  the  largest 
and  best-grown  physically  are  also  superior  men- 
tally ?  Some  of  the  statistics  of  school  children  do 
show  that  the  taller  and  heavier  children  are  the 
better  in  their  studies,  but  this  correlation  tends  to 
disappear  as  adult  years  are  reached,  and  it  would 
scarcely  be  safe  to  say  that  among  grown  people  the 
fittest  physically  are  also  the  fittest  mentally.  The 
suggestion  is  made  by  Boas,  and  quoted  with  ap- 
proval by  Wissler  ^^  and  Whipple,^*'  that  this  cor- 
relation is  merely  a  temporary  phenomenon  of  the 
growth  period.  Another  question  is  this :  are  the 
periods  of  accelerated  physical  growth  the  same  as 
the  periods  of  rapid  mental  progress  ?  Claparede  ^^ 
writes  on  this  point :  "  It  is  therefore  very  probable 
that  there  is  antagonism  between  the  energy  required 
for  growth  and  mental  energy.  .  .  .  The  repercussion 
of  physical  growth  on  work  and  mental  energy  seems 
to  be  only  a  particular  case  of  the  general  law  of  the 
alternation  of  vegetative  and  psychic  activities,  an 
alternation  which  arises  from  the  limitation  of  energy 
furnished  by  the  organism."  Meumann,"  however, 
writes :  "  The  year  in  which  the  bodily  development 
of  the  child  is  retarded  is  usually  also  a  time  of 
slower  psychic  development,  and  vice  versa."  And 
again :  "  The  psychic  development  of  pupils  during 
the  year  proceeds  by  fluctuations  which  in  part  paral- 
lel the  aforesaid  bodily  ones,  but  in  part  take  exactly 


26  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  opposite  direction."  The  substance  of  the  mat- 
ter seems  to  be  that  there  may  be  antagonism,  or 
alternations  of  mental  and  physical  growth  within 
short  periods,  but  that,  taking  larger  periods  into 
account,  the  years  of  mental  advance  are  also  the 
years  of  physical  advance. 

One  further  question  we  may  raise  in  this  connec- 
tion, namely,  can  correlations  be  made  out  between 
mental  capacity  and  any  of  the  ordinary  types  of 
head  measurements?  The  most  common  measures 
are  length,  breadth,  cephalic  index,  and  girth  of  skull. 
Positive  correlations  have  been  asserted  between  in- 
telligence and  each  of  these  measures,  but  all  such 
correlations  are  so  small  that  they  would  afford  no 
safe  basis  for  practical  conclusions.  The  statement 
of  Bayerthal  ^^  is  as  follows :  "  Large  heads  may 
have  all  grades  of  intelligence  from  genius  to  idiocy, 
medium-sized  heads  may  have  intelligence  above  the 
average,  though  highly  developed  intelligence  is  rare, 
while  very  small  heads  are  never  coupled  with  high- 
grade  intelligence."  There  is  no  very  high  correla- 
tion, by  the  way,  between  head  measurements  and 
general  stature. 

Physiological  Age. — A  distinction  recently  em- 
phasized, notably  by  Crampton,  is  that  which  exists 
between  the  chronological  age  of  children  and  their 
physiological  age,  or  degree  of  maturity.  Children 
of  the  same  race,  who  have  lived  the  same  number  of 


GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE         27 

years,  may  differ  widely  in  the  stage  of  development 
which  they  have  reached.  This  is  clearly  shown  in 
Crampton's  tables  ^*  of  the  prepubescent,  the  pubes- 
cent, and  the  postpubescent  boys  in  the  schools  of 
New  York.  (Table  IV.)  Crampton  finds,  further- 
more, that  height,  weight,  muscular  strength,  and 
forwardness  in  school  all  correlate  better  with  physio- 
logical than  with  chronological  age. 

TABLE  IV 

Physiological  age  groups 
Age  in  years  Immature         Maturing  Mature 

Per  cent.  Per  cent.  Per  cent. 

12.5—13.0   69  25  6 

13.0—13.5   55  26  18 

13.5—14.0   41  28  31 

14.0—14.5   26  28  46 

14.5—15.0  16  24  60 

15.0—15.5  9  20  70 

15.5—16.0   5  10  85 

16.0—16.5   2  4  93 

16.5—17.0  1  4  95 

17.0—17.5   0  2  98 

17.5—18.0  0  0  100 

If  children  are  to  be  classified  in  school  according 
to  the  degree  of  their  maturity  it  would  be  con- 
venient to  have  some  criterion,  earlier  than  that  of 
puberty,  for  determining  the  degree  of  maturity. 
Terman  ^®  cites  the  work  of  Rotch  and  Pryor  with 
the  Roentgen  rays,  by  means  of  which  they  found 
that  definite  degrees  of  ossification  of  the  bones  are 
characteristic  of  various  stages   of  maturity.      The 


28  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

stages  are  said  to  be  most  clearly  perceptible  in  the 
bones  of  the  hand  and  wrist.  Another  possible  index 
to  the  degree  of  development  of  the  child  is  his  denti- 
tion. On  this  we  may  quote  from  Bean :  ^^  "  The 
teeth  are  more  convenient  and  more  exact  as  a  means 
of  determining  the  physiological  standard  than  stat- 
ure or  weight  or  the  growth  of  the  bones  or  secondary 
sexual  characters,  etc.,  and  they  may  be  of  greater 
value  than  any  other  means  that  can  be  utilized."  The 
usual  years,  according  to  his  figures,  for  the  erup- 
tion of  permanent  teeth  in  American  boys  are :  for  the 
upper  and  lower  first  molars,  and  lower  median  in- 
cisors, 6-7  years ;  upper  median  incisors,  7-8 ;  lower 
lateral  incisors,  7-9 ;  upper  lateral  incisors,  8-10 ; 
upper  median  premolars,  10-11 ;  lower  canines,  11- 
12 ;  lower  median  premolars  and  upper  lateral  pre- 
molars, 10-12 ;  upper  canines  and  lower  lateral 
premolars,  11-12;  lower  second  molars,  11-14; 
upper  second  molars,  12-14.  With  girls  the  teeth 
follow  the  same  order  but  appear  about  a  year  earlier 
throughout.  Certain  race  differences  are  also  re- 
ported. These  figures  are  quoted,  not  in  the  expecta- 
tion that  the  student  will  learn  them,  but  to  show  that 
there  is  here  the  promise  of  a  means,  during  a  certain 
term  of  years,  of  estimating  a  child's  physiological 

age- 
Pedagogical    Corollaries. — Do   these   facts    about 

growth,  with  which  the  present  chapter  has  dealt. 


GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE         29 

make  any  difference  in  the  actual  business  of  teaching 
or  running  a  school  ?  Let  us  notice  first  Cranipton's 
recommendations  (op.  cit.)  :  "  1.  That  children  who 
mature  in  the  lower  grammar  grades  be  given  the 
opportunity  to  obtain  such  form  of  instruction  in 
the  elementary  school  as  will  directly  prepare  them 
for  immediately  taking  a  part  in  active  life."  The 
assumption  here  made  is  that  children  who  are  still 
in  the  lower  grades  when  mature  are  not  those  who 
are  likely  to  profit  by  extended  academic  training, 
and  also  that  at  maturity  the  child's  feelings  and 
interests  urge  him  to  be  out  and  at  work.  The  second 
recommendation  is :  "  2,  Where  mature  and  im- 
mature children  are  now  brought  together  in  the 
same  class  in  the  elementary  or  high  school,  they 
should  be  separated  into  different  classes,  so  that 
the  pedagogical,  ethical,  and  social  treatment  to 
which  they  are  subjected  may  be  better  adapted 
to  their  disparate  and  distinct  requirements  and 
abilities." 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  knowledge  of  a 
child's  degree  of  maturity  is  an  important  help  to  a 
teacher  in  estimating  his  ability.  This  point  has 
significant  bearings  on  the  question  of  the  co-educa- 
tion of  the  sexes.  During  the  adolescent  years,  girls 
of  the  same  chronological  age  as  boys  are  relatively 
more  mature,  and  girls  frequently  surpass  boys  in 
school  work  at  this  time.     There  is  some  reason  to 


30  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

think  that  this  illusory  superiority  offers  unnecessary 
discouragement  to  sensitive  boys. 

The  periodic  character  of  growth  which  is  shown 
in  the  tables  is  another  fact  which  is  pedagogically 
important.  The  teacher  must  recognize  the  exist- 
ence of  "  slack  periods  "  in  mental  progress,  must 
regard  them  as  normal,  and  take  care  not  to  nag  the 
child  who  is  obviously  going  through  such  a  period. 
He  may  be  correspondingly  exacting  during  the 
periods  of  mental  alertness. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  use  which  can  be  made 
of  physical  measurements  is  to  stir  children  them- 
selves to  an  interest  in  their  own  physical  growth.  It 
should  be  feasible  to  let  them  measure  each  other,  and 
to  let  each  keep  a  chart  of  his  own  development.  Such 
a  plan  offers,  incidentally,  a  few  problems  in  arith- 
metic and  graph-making,  and  gives  a  point  of  depar- 
ture for  instruction  in  physiology  and  hygiene.  Best 
of  all,  however,  it  should  stimulate  interest  in  ath- 
letics and  in  personal  growth.  Taylor  ^^  says  that  the 
normal  boy  is  more  interested  in  his  physical  develop- 
ment than  in  any  other  one  thing,  and  he  tells  of  the 
happy  results  of  getting  boys  to  compete  with  each 
other  for  physical  improvement. 

Finally,  a  great  service  could  be  done  by  the  artist 
who  would  sketch  out,  on  the  basis  of  standard  meas- 
urements, a  series  of  typical  normal  figures  of  boys 
and  girls  at  various  stages  of  maturity.     If  such 


GROWTH  OF  HUMAN  STRUCTURE        31 

figures,  having  true  artistic  merit,  could  be  displayed 
in  the  gymnasium,  they  might  do  much  towards  cul- 
tivating an  active  interest  in  acquiring  beautiful 
bodies,  and  in  stimulating  good  taste  in  appreciating 
the  points  of  the  human  form. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  GEOWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT 

We  shall  use  the  word  "  behavior  "  to  mean  any 
activity  of  the  human  organism  which  is  character- 
istic of  it  as  an  organism.  This  will  include  every 
performance  from  simple  reflexes  to  intricate  rea- 
sonings, and  will  exclude  only  those  movements  which 
might  be  made  by  any  physical  mass.  The  next  few 
chapters  will  deal  with  kinds  of  activity  which  are 
relatively  elementary,  accessible  to  direct  observa- 
tion, and  obviously  conditioned  by  physical  structure 
and  present  environment.  Later  chapters,  on  imagi- 
nation, memory,  reasoning,  and  so  on,  are  also 
discussions  of  behavior,  but  behavior  of  a  more  elabo- 
rate and  subtle  kind. 

Reflexes. — As  one  tries  to  imagine  the  whole  range 
of  human  behavior  one  sees  the  need  of  some  definite 
plan  for  classifying  these  activities.  One  striking 
difference  between  activities  is  that  some  of  them 
"  can't  be  helped,"  whereas  others  can, — that  is,  some 
are  fixed  and  others  are  variable.  Strictly  speaking, 
there  is  nothing  in  human  behavior  which  is  fixed  in 
an  absolute  sense,  but  there  are  certain  ways  of  react- 

32 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT       33 

ing  which  are  very  stubborn  in  resisting  any  modifi- 
cation. These  are  called  reflexes.  These  reflexes  are : 
1.  Hard  to  change;  2.  Simple  in  character;  3.  Com- 
mon to  the  individuals  of  a  given  species ;  and  4.  Not 
subject  directly  to  voluntary  control.  Some  of  them, 
such  as  the  movements  of  the  digestive  organs,  we 
are  not  even  aware  of  except  as  we  study  them  through 
physiology ;  others,  such  as  winking,  sneezing,  cough- 
ing, and  the  knee-jerk,  we  can  see  happen.  Each 
takes  place  in  obedience  to  some  definite  stimulus  like 
a  blow  on  a  certain  spot  on  the  knee,  the  tickling  of 
the  nose  or  throat,  or  the  presence  of  an  object  close  to 
the  eye.  Many  of  them  are  already  operative  at 
birth.  Now,  although  the  teacher  should  know  and 
recognize  these  stable  forms  of  reaction,  yet,  obvi- 
ously, it  is  with  the  variable  forms  that  he  is  chiefly 
concerned. 

Instincts.  Their  Enumeration. — To  tell  over  all 
the  variable  modes  of  behavior  would  be  even  harder 
than  tOjlist  all  the  reflexes.  The  reflexes  belong,  each 
fairly  definitely,  to  some  special  part  of  the  human 
structure,  and  they  could  be  so  classified.  But  with 
many  of  the  complex  variable  modes  of  reaction  the 
body  as  a  whole  is  brought  into  play,  and  the  com- 
binations of  movements  may  be  very  numerous  in- 
deed. These  variable  forms  are  sometimes  classified, 
therefore,  according  to  the  external  objects  towards 
which  they  are  directed,  or  the  purposes  which  they 


34  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

accomplish.  A  fundamental  distinction,  also,  is 
recognized  between  inborn  tendencies  to  action  and 
those  tendencies  which  are  acquired  during  the  life- 
time of  the  individual.  The  simple,  inborn  responses 
are  the  reflexes ;  the  complex  and  variable  inborn  re- 
sponses are  called  instincts.  The  following  grouping 
of  instincts  is  adopted  by  Kirkpatrick  ^^  and  is  simi- 
lar to  that  proposed  by  Marshall.^^ 

1.  Individualistic  or  self-preservative  instincts.  .  .  . 
The  chief  forms  of  this  instinct  may  be  designated  as  the 
feeding,  fearing,  and  fighting  instincts.  .  .  .  It  is  evident 
that  means  cf  locomotion,  such  as  swimming,  crawling, 
running,  and  flying,  are  useful  both  in  obtaining  food, 
escaping  enemies,  fighting,  and  in  obtaining  other  ends. 
There  is  little  doubt,  however,  that  they  were  originally 
developed  and  are  now  most  used  in  self-preservation. 

2.  Parental  instincts  ...  all  actions  .  .  .  that  have 
for  their  primary  end  the  reproducing  of  young  and  pre- 
paring for  and  taking  care  of  them. 

3.  Group  or  social  instincts  .  .  .  e.g.,  rivalry,  jealousy, 
embarrassment,  and  shame. 

4.  Adaptive  instincts.  (Under  this  caption  Kirkpatrick 
cites  two  general  tendencies,  i.e.,  to  random  movement, 
and  to  repetition  of  movement,  which  are  the  bases,  he 
says,  of  imitation,  play,  and  curiosity.) 

6.    Kegulative  instincts,  such  as  "  moral  tendency." 

6.    A  miscellaneous  group  comprising  the  tendencies  to 

collect,  construct,  destroy,  to  express  oneself,  to  adorn  and 

to  make  beautiful  things. 

The  list  of  instincts  as  accepted  by  Angell  ^^*  is 
this :  "  Fear,  anger,  shyness,  curiosity,  affection,  sex- 
ual love,  jealousy,  envy,  rivalry,  sociability,  sympathy, 
modesty,  play,  imitation,  constructiveness,  secretive- 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT      35 

ness,  and  acquisitiveness."  Macdougall  "*  arranges 
instincts  and  emotions  together  in  the  following  pairs : 
"  Flight-fear,  repulsion-disgust,  curiosity-wonder, 
pugnacity-anger,  self-abasement-subjection,  self-asser- 
tion-elation, parental  instinct-tender  emotion."  This 
illustrates  the  close  relation  between  the  active  atti- 
tude and  the  internal  feeling. 

Thorndike  "^*  presents  yet  another  list  of  men's 
original  instincts  and  capacities :  "  Sensory  capacities, 
original  attentiveness,  gross  bodily  control,  food-get- 
ting, protective  responses  and  anger,  motherly  be- 
havior, responses  to  the  presence,  approval  and  scorn 
of  men,  mastering  and  submissive  behavior,  other  so- 
cial instincts,  e.g.,  rivalry,  envy,  and  jealousy,  owner- 
ship, kindliness,  teasing,  etc."  This  series  gives,  in 
one  sense,  the  truest  conception  of  instinct,  since,  by 
including  such  items  as  sensory  capacities,  attentive- ' 
ness,  and  (in  Thorndike's  larger  work  ^^^)  conscious- 
ness itself,  it  emphasizes  the  fact  that  there  is  an  in- 
stinctive aspect  to  all  human  powers. 

All  such  inventories  as  these  are  useful,  and  we 
are  not  in  a  position  to  accept  one  and  reject  the 
others.  The  concept  of  instinct  is  a  difficult  and  not 
wholly  settled  one.  As  Watson  ^^  says :  "  Present-day 
comparative  psychology  ...  is  showing  that  what 
was  earlier  called  instinct  is  in  most  cases  a  delicate 
and  complex  combination  of  instinct  and  habit."  A 
purely  instinctive  act,  one  wholly  untouched  by  ex- 


36  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

perience,  can  occur  but  once,  because  after  its  first 
appearance  the  influence  of  that  first  time  will  remain 
as  the  beginning  of  a  habit.  Instinctive  activity  does 
not  survive  into  adult  life  alongside  of  acquired  activ- 
ity, but  it  merges  into  the  latter  and  is  expressed 
through  habits.  It  is,  therefore,  seldom  subject  to 
direct  observation  in  its  isolated  state.  The  impor- 
tant question  for  the  teacher  is  not  the  question 
whether  such  and  such  an  act  is  inborn  or  acquired, 
but  rather  what  can  be  done  with  it,  whether  it  can 
be  changed  or  preserved  or  used  in  any  way. 

The  order  in  which  various  instincts  appear  and 
in  which  they  reach  fullest  expression  in  the  indi- 
vidual life  is  a  matter  of  some  significance  for  peda- 
gogy. There  is  a  belief  that  if  an  instinct  is  not 
utilized  at  the  time  of  its  appearance  it  may  pres- 
'  ently  disappear  forever.  Thorndike  combats  this 
view  by  pointing  out  that  instincts  and  capacities  are 
not  abrupt,  but  gradual,  in  their  waxing  and  waning. 

Turning  now  to  a  discussion  of  a  few  of  the  in- 
stincts in  somewhat  greater  detail,  we  shall  begin 
with  one  which  is  not  included  in  any  of  the  above 
lists,  though  one  writer,  Claparede,  has  called  it  an 
instinct,  and  it  is  certainly  a  fundamental  and  inborn 
kind  of  behavior.     I  mean  sleep. 

Sleeping  and  Waking  Periods. — One  of  the  most 
striking  facts  of  life  is  the  contrast  between  profound 
slumber  and  the  state  of  waking  activity.     One  of 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT       37 

the  first  questions  which  we  may  ask  about  con- 
sciousness is:  How  much  of  it  is  there?  During 
the  first  two  or  three  months  of  life  a  child  sleeps 
approximately  three-fourths  of  the  time.  This  sleep 
is  broken  up  into  periods  of  about  two  or  three  hours 
each.  During  the  first  three  years,  according  to  the 
records  of  Preyer  "^  and  of  Koyes,"^  sleep  gradually 
diminishes  in  total  amount,  but  increases  in  the 
length  of  its  periods.  Noyes's  boy,  at  the  end  of  the 
two  years  recorded,  was  sleeping  sixty-one  per  cent, 
of  the  time.  Preyer  writes  that,  from  the  thirty- 
seventh  month  on,  his  boy's  sleep  lasted  regularly 
eleven  to  twelve  hours,  and  sleep  in  the  daytime  was 
no  longer  required.  Various  estimates  of  the  proper 
number  of  hours  of  sleep  for  older  children  have  been 
assembled  by  Terman  ^^^  as  given  in  Table  V. 

TABLE  V 

Agb  6  7       8       9  10  11        12      13    14      15  16        17        18 

Authority; 

Duke....  131^  13      12!^  12  IIV^  11  10'^  10      10  9^^      9        9        8!^ 

Bernhard    .    ~  11       11       11  10!^  lOU  10  10        9]^ 

Hertel     .    11  10!^  10!^  10  10  9%     ^14    9\4    9  9  8%   . .       .. 

Claparede  im  livi  111^  lOV^  10!^  9!^  9^  OV^     9  9        

ManaceineU  11      11       11  10  10  9]^  94     8^  8V^      8       8-7    . . 

Krollich     11  11       11       11  10!^  10>^  10  10       9)^  9  9      8)^      8]4 

Btal. 

Andress  "^  found,  from  records  of  a  group  of  forty- 
nine  students,  that  those  whose  average  age  was  be- 
tween eighteen  and  nineteen  years  slept,  on  the  aver- 
age,   eight    hcurs    and    fifty-three    minutes,    those 


38  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

between  twenty  and  twenty-one  years  old  slept,  on 
the  average,  eight  hours  and  thirty-four  minutes. 
There  seem  to  be  wide  individual  variations  in  the 
amount  of  sleep  needed  whether  by  adults  or  children. 
The  quality  or  depth  of  sleep  has  been  studied  in 
the   following  way:    The   experimenter,   Kohlsehlit- 


0123      456      789     10    U 
HOURS 

Fig.  5. 


ter,^°  dropped  a  ball  from  varying  heights  upon  a 
metal  plate,  and  in  this  way  determined  how  loud 
a  sound  was  necessary  to  waken  a  sleeping  subject. 
This  was  tried  for  the  different  hours  of  the  subject's 
sleep  period.  Fig.  5  shows  the  height  in  centimeters 
(on  the  ordinate)  which  the  ball  had  to  fall  in  order 
to  waken  the  sleeper  after  a  certain  number  of  hours 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT      39 

of  sleep  (as  shown  on  the  abscissa).  The  general 
form  of  this  curve  has  been  verified  by  other  investi- 
gators for  auditory,  tactile,  and  electric  stimuli.  It 
indicates  that  sleep  attains  its  maximum  depth  at  the 
end  of  an  hour,  or  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  that  it 
becomes  progressively  lighter  for  the  later  hours.  An 
important  suggestion  is  made  by  Seashore  ^^^  in  view 
of  this  fact.  He  writes :  "  From  this  we  may  derive 
a  principle  of  mental  economy.  Cut  short  the  long 
light  sleep  of  the  late  morning  hours  and  substitute  a 
short  sleep  at  some  favorable  time  during  the  work 
day.  .  .  .  The  curve  of  day  sleep  has  the  same  form 
as  the  curve  of  night  sleep,  but  is  usually  very  much 
smaller.  From  ten  to  twenty  minutes  would  cover  the 
period  of  deepest  sleep  in  the  day  rest  of  a  normal 
brain  worker." 

How  far  is  sleep  subject  to  voluntary  control? 
'■  Some  persons  are  able  to  sleep  at  will  and  to  wake  at 
will,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  average  person  could, 
by  practice,  make  some  progress  in  that  direction.  It 
appears  also  to  be  possible  to  shorten  arbitrarily  the 
amount  of  sleep  needed  upon  occasion.  There  is  evi- 
dence to  show  that  after  a  long  time  of  sleeplessness  a 
few  hours  of  profound  slumber  may  do  the  work  of  a 
longer  and  lighter  sleep.  But  on  the  other  hand 
there  is  danger  of  cutting  off  needed  rest,  especially 
with  children.  According  to  Pieron  ^^  those  animals 
which    have    the    most    complex    and    differentiated 


40  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

mechanism  of  adaptation  are  the  ones  in  which  the 
periods  of  rest  attain  a  duration  and  depth  unknown 
in  the  simpler  organisms.  Manaceine  ^^  points  out 
that  the  part  of  the  organism  which  is  most  affected 
by  sleep  is  the  nervous  system,  and  chiefly  the  brain. 
"  It  is  possible,"  she  writes,  "  for  all  the  organs  of  the 
body  to  be  active  during  sleep,  with  the  exception  of 
the  nervous  system,  and  even  this  exception  is  not 
constant  .  .  .  the  spinal  cord  and  the  different  sen- 
sory nerves  do  not  sleep."  Sleep,  then,  appears  to 
be  peculiar  to  the  higher  rather  than  the  lower  ani- 
mal forms,  and  to  the  higher  rather  than  the  lower 
parts  of  these.  In  other  words,  well-defined  sleep 
periods  are  a  mark  of  complex  organization. 

The  practice  of  modern  open-air  schools  in  pro- 
viding for  a  midday  nap  for  children  is  well  advised, 
and  it  might  with  advantage  be  copied  by  other 
schools  as  well. 

Dreams. — The  interesting  idea  is  proposed  by 
Ellis  ^*  that  dreaming  is  the  primitive  form  of  con- 
sciousness. Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  dreams  are 
certainly  a  very  characteristic  aspect  of  behavior  dur- 
ing sleep.  What  significance,  we  may  ask,  has  dream 
life  in  our  present  state  of  evolution  ?  Can  it  teach 
us  anything  about  children  ?  Is  it  desirable  in  itself  ? 
Can  it  be  cultivated  or  suppressed  ?  We  cannot  give 
dogmatic  answers  to  all  of  these  questions,  but  recent 
researches  give  a  start  on  some  of  them. 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT      41 

Manaccinc  believes  that  the  absence  of  dreams  is 
not  a  good  sign,  but  that  profuse  dreaming  is  a  nor- 
mal index  of  an  advanced  and  active  intelligence.  It 
is  probable  that  persons  who  are  accustomed  to  saying 
that  they  seldom  or  never  dream  would  be  surprised 
at  the  frequency  of  their  dreams  if  they  would  take 
the  trouble  to  record  them  immediately  after  waking. 
An  hour  of  waking  life  will  often  dispel  not  only 
the  dream  but  even  the  knowledge  that  one  has  had  a 
dream  at  all.  I  asked  a  group  of  twenty-four  young 
women  to  give  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  nights 
per  month  during  which  they  had  dreams.  The  aver- 
age estimate  was  7.5.  They  then  kept  a  daily  record 
of  their  dreams  for  one  month,  with  the  result  that 
the  average  number  of  nights  on  which  dreams  oc- 
curred proved  to  be  15.4.  It  is  said  that  most  dreams 
occur  during  the  later  hours  of  the  sleep  period,  and 
hence  during  light  sleep  rather  than  deep  sleep.  This 
point  was  confirmed  in  the  records  just  quoted. 

The  content  of  dreams  often  repeats  in  part  the 
business  of  the  day  just  past,  but  it  is  also  true  that 
dreams  very  frequently  jump  over  recent  events  and 
revive  incidents  of  the  remote  past,  or  scenes  which 
are  remote  from  the  interests  of  the  dreamer.  This 
fact  has  suggested  the  theory  held,  for  example,  by  de 
Sanctis,  that  dreams  are  a  recuperative  phenomenon, 
that  is,  that  dreams  are  a  contrast  eifect,  like  the  after- 
image in  vision,  and  show  that  the  unused  tracts  in 


42  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  brain  are  functioning  during  sleep  while  the 
fatigued  areas  are  resting. 

Freud's  ^^  theory  of  dreams  emphasizes  their  diag- 
nostic value.  He  regards  them  as  a  result  of,  hence  a 
symptom  of,  ungratified  wishes.  "  The  dreams  of 
little  children  are  simple  fulfilments  of  wishes." 
With  adults  he  assumes  as  the  cause  of  dreams,  "  Two 
psychic  forces  (streams,  systems) ,  of  which  one  con- 
stitutes the  wish  expressed  by  the  dream,  while  the 
other  acts  as  a  censor  upon  this  dream  wish,  and  by 
means  of  this  censoring  forces  a  distortion  of  its  ex- 
pression." Most  of  these  dream  wishes,  Freud  thinks, 
have  a  sexual  reference.  However  this  may  be,  the 
general  contention  is  well-founded,  that  the  emotions 
are  the  greatest  determining  forces  in  dream  life. 
The  life  of  dreams  may  be  described  as  by  Ellis  as 
one  in  which  emotion,  imagination,  and  memory  are 
active,  often  exceptionally  so,  but  in  which  atten- 
tion, volition,  and  critical  acumen  are  lowered.  The 
dreamer  may  be  fertile  and  creative,  but  is  less  often 
consistent  or  judicious. 

Similarities  have  been  noticed  between  the  psy- 
chical processes  of  children  and  of  the  dreamer.  It 
is  of  some  practical  consequence  to  the  teacher  to  know 
that  for  the  child  tlicre  is  no  such  clear-cut  difference 
between  his  dreaming  and  his  waking  visions  as  the 
adult  knows.  Even  for  the  adult,  dreams  have  the 
same  sensorv  texture  as  ordinarv   images,  but  the 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT       43 

adult  has  taught  himself  that  events  which  cannot  be 
fitted  into  the  meager  dimensions  of  the  probable  are 
not  to  be  trusted  as  real, — they  are  dreams.  The 
child  has  no  basis  for  such  a  critical  appraisal,  and 
to  him,  therefore,  all  events  have  an  equal  claim  to 
seem  true.  Tylor  ^'^^  says  that  savages  ofttimes  show 
the  same  confusion  between  the  subjective  and  objec- 
tive elements  of  their  experience,  and  that  the  dreams 
and  visions  of  the  seer  have  the  same  kind  of  reality 
for  him  and  his  followers  which  any  external  event 
has.  Instead,  therefore,  of  reproving  a  child  for 
this  confusion,  as  if  it  showed  a  lying  spirit  in  him, 
the  teacher  ought  to  help  him  to  find  tests  for  dis- 
tinguishing the  imaginary  from  the  real. 

Variations  in  Waking  Efficiency.  Work  and 
Fatigue. — As  we  have  seen,  it  is  not  until  the  fourth 
year  of  life  that  the  child's  waking  periods  over- 
balance in  duration  his  sleep  periods.  Within  these 
hours  of  waking  activity  there  are  marked  changes 
in  efficiency.  For  example,  people  in  general  fall 
into  two  great  groups,  morning  workers  and  evening 
workers.  The  one  group  is  capable  of  doing  better 
work  in  the  morning  hours  and  diminishes  in  capacity 
during  the  remainder  of  the  day;  the  other  group 
gradually  approaches  its  optimal  period  as  the  day 
wears  on  and  is  able  to  do  its  best  work  in  the  evening. 
Both  are  normal.  Analogous  differences  appear  for 
shorter  intervals  of  time  while  the  subject  is  engaged 


44  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

upon  some  continuous  task.  Curves  of  work,  or  of 
fatigue,  show  that  some  persons  reach  their  maximum 
soon  after  beginning  the  task  and  then  gradually  de- 
crease in  efficiency.  Others  gradually  improve  from 
a  poor  beginning  and  only  come  to  their  maximum 
after  a  rather  long  period.  Still  others  show  first  a 
rise,  then  a  fall,  i.e.,  they  are  intermediate  in  type 
between  the  other  two. 

Reliable  tests  of  fatigue  are  very  much  needed  in 
school  work.  Many  methods  of  measuring  fatigue 
have  been  tried,  but  none  seems  to  be  entirely  ade- 
quate. Among  the  objective  tests  are  those  which 
take  account  of  the  amount  and  quality  of  work  done 
in  some  prescribed  task,  such  as  copying  letters,  strik- 
ing out  letters,  arithmetical  computation,  and  memo- 
rizing. Records  from  the  esthcsiometer  and  the  dy- 
namometer have  also  been  used,  upon  the  assumption 
that  mental  fatigue  lowers  muscular  power  and  raises 
the  threshold  of  skin  sensitivity.  The  reliability  of 
these  measures  has  been  seriously  questioned.  The 
subjective  feeling  of  weariness  offers  a  rough  sort  of 
control,  but,  as  Thorndike  ^^'  has  shown,  this  is  far 
from  a  sure  guide.  Children  often  feel  weary  when 
they  are  not  fatigued,  and  fail  to  feel  fatigue  when  it 
is  really  there.  In  the  same  way  genuine  fatigue 
may  fail  to  show  in  the  quality  of  work  done.  For 
practical  purposes  the  teacher  must  make  a  diagnosis 
of  fatigue  on  the  basis  of  some  combination  of  signs 


GROWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR.     INSTINCT       45 

such  as  physical  appearance,  the  child's  own  state- 
ment, the  quality  of  work  done,  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  length  of  time  the  child  has  been  working. 

The  arrangement  of  the  school  program  should  be 
such  as  to  take  account  of  the  fatigue  factor.  Thus, 
the  half-hour  class  period  is  adopted  by  some  good 
schools  and  a  five-  or  ten-minute  free  interval  allowed 
between  exercises.  Subjects  may  be  so  scheduled  that 
the  fatigue  effects  are  diminished.  Some  studies  are 
more  taxing  than  others,  mathematics  and  foreign 
languages  are  usually  conceded  to  be  "  harder  "  than 
drawing  and  literature;  though,  obviously,  the 
teacher  and  the  method  make  large  differences  in  this 
respect.  The  difficult  subjects  should  come  early  in 
the  day.  Vigorous  gymnastic  w^ork  also  induces  men- 
tal fatigue,  and  hence  belongs  at  the  end  rather  than 
at  the  beginning  of  a  school  day.  Light  gymnastic 
exercises  of  a  few  minutes'  duration  may  have  a 
stimulative  effect,  and  may  properly  be  introduced  at 
an  early  period  of  the  day. 

In  the  alternation  of  sleep  and  waking,  in  the 
phenomena  of  dream  consciousness,  and  in  the  fluctua- 
tions of  work  and  fatigue  during  waking  conscious- 
ness we  have  been  discussing  very  general  aspects  of 
mind.  In  the  next  chapter  we  come  to  a  discussion 
of  a  few  of  the  more  specialized  instinctive  responses, 
namely,  fear,  the  collecting  impulse,  and  play. 


CHAPTEE  IV 
INSTINCT,  CONTINUED 

Instinct  and  Emotion. — In  the  case  of  dream  con- 
sciousness we  said  that  emotions  are  the  great  motifs. 
They  are  scarcely  less  so  in  waking  life.  All  in- 
stinctive acts,  unless  they  have  become  specialized 
into  smoothly  running  habits,  are  accompanied  by 
emotion.  Macdougall's  list,  cited  above,  illustrates 
the  fact  that  for  every  well-defined  instinctive  reac- 
tion we  can  find  a  recognized  emotional  attitude.  The 
relation  of  emotion  to  instinct  is  the  relation  of  a 
conscious  feeling,  or  inner  experience  of  an  act,  to  the 
act  itself.  An  instinctive  act  is  an  overt  jDhysiological 
event,  the  emotion  is  the  psychical  side  of  this  event. 
Instincts  are  typical  ways  of  acting,  and  emotions  are 
typical  attitudes  corresponding  to  these  acts. 

In  connection  with  special  phases  of  the  child's 
growth  we  shall  have  occasion  to  advert  to  various 
instincts,  such  as  imitation  in  learning,  vocalization 
in  the  acquisition  of  language,  constructiveness  in  rea- 
soning, etc.  The  present  discussion  will  be  limited, 
therefore,  to  a  consideration  of  three  tendencies  which 
are  especially  significant  for  the  teacher,  and  which 

46 


INSTINCT,  CONTINUED  47 

have  been  studied   iu  some  detail.      These  are  the 
instinct  of  fear,  the  collecting  impulse,  and  play. 

Fear. — Fear  has  been  called  by  Stanley  the  most 
primitive  kind  of  emotion,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  an 
early  and  a  lasting  form.  In  a  study  of  emotion  by 
Calkins  and  Fackenthal  ^^  the  fears  of  children  are 
commented  upon  as  follows :  "  The  noticeable  fea- 
ture ...  is  the  increase  of  fear  with  added  years. 
Two-fifths  of  the  children  under  three  years  and 
one-tenth  of  the  children  under  six,  but  less  than  one- 
hundredth  of  the  older  children,  are  reported  as  hav- 
ing no  fear.  The  supposed  prominence  of  fear  among 
girls  is  certainly  not  shown  by  the  younger  children." 
Hall  ^^^  also  Avrites  on  the  basis  of  very  large  ques- 
tionnaire returns :  "  The  fears  of  the  boys  increase 
from  seven  to  nine,  and  then  decline,  while  those  of 
the  girls  increase  more  steadily  from  four  to  eight- 
een." Hall  tabulates  a  large  number  of  the  special 
objects  of  fear,  with  a  wealth  of  illustration  under 
each.  The  fears  which  lead  in  frequency  are:  the 
fear  of  thunder  and  lightning,  of  reptiles,  of  strange 
persons,  of  darkness,  and  of  fire.  Among  other  less 
frequent  fears  are  the  dread  of  death,  of  solitude,  of 
eyes,  of  fur,  and  of  teeth.  Some  children  cannot 
bear  to  see  people  show  their  back  teeth.  It  is  curi- 
ous to  note,  in  this  connection,  that  one  of  the  old 
rules  of  Japanese  etiquette  expressly  forbade  persons 
of  inferior  rank  to  smile  in  such  a  manner  that  their 


48  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

back  teeth  could  be  seen.  Hall  continues :  "  While 
many  special  fears  decline  and  others  increase  with 
age,  many  infantile  fears  remain  through  life,  and 
scores  of  our  reporters  say  there  has  been  no  change 
in  their  fears."  Binet  ^^"^  has  compared,  on  the  basis 
of  class  rank,  different  groups  of  school  children  who 
were  reported  as  specially  subject  to  fear.  He  found 
that  there  is  no  correlation,  either  positive  or  nega- 
tive, between  timidity  and  intelligence,  but  that  the 
more  timid  children  are  those  who  have  more  vivid 


imagination. 


Fear,  in  pedagogical  practice,  has  probably  been 
the  most  exploited  of  the  instincts.  The  history  of 
education  indicates  that  in  most  school  systems  it  has 
been  the  teacher's  chief  resource  for  stimulating  in- 
terest in  work.  Deplorable  as  this  is,  it  but  marks 
the  extreme  use  of  that  which  is,  after  all,  a  legiti- 
mate educative  means.  It  is  neither  possible  nor 
desirable  to  eradicate  entirely  the  reactions  of  fear. 
But  it  is  possible  to  transmute  them  by  altering 
gradually  the  objects  to  which  they  are  attached. 
Hall  says :  "  We  fear  God  better  for  having  feared 
thunder."  Education  may  be  conceived  of  as  the 
reorganization  of  the  objects  of  emotion;  the  un- 
reasonable fears  of  childhood  may  be  changed  to 
reasonable  habits  of  discretion,  and  the  fear  of 
physical  harm  made  over  into  the  fear  of  that  which 
is  spiritually  ignoble. 


INSTINCT,  CONTINUED  49 

There  is  an  extreme  form  of  the  fear  reaction  which 
is  probably  harmful  to  the  organism,  namely,  the 
abject  terror  which  results  in  paralysis  of  effort  and 
in  great  nervous  shock,  but  moderate  degrees  of  fear 
are  sometimes  a  necessary  spur  to  action.  Cannon,*" 
writing  upon  the  energizing  influence  of  emotional 
excitement,  says :  "  Every  one  of  the  visceral  changes 
that  have  been  noted — the  cessation  of  processes  in 
the  alimentary  canal  (thus  freeing  the  energy  supply 
for  other  parts)  ;  the  shifting  of  blood  from  the  ab- 
dominal organs,  whose  activities  are  deferable,  to 
the  organs  immediately  essential  to  muscular  exer- 
tion (the  lungs,  the  heart,  the  central  nervous  sys- 
tem) ;  the  increased  vigor  of  contraction  of  the  heart ; 
the  quick  abolition  of  the  effects  of  muscular  fatigue ; 
the  mobilizing  of  energy-giving  sugar  in  the  circula- 
tion— every  one  of  these  visceral  changes  is  directly 
serviceable  in  fnaking  the  organism  more  effective  in 
the  violent  display  of  energy  luhich  fear  or  rage  or 
pain  may  involve." 

In  brief,  fear  appears  early  in  the  child's  history, 
and  some  forms  of  it  decline  while  others  increase 
with  years.  Moderate  fear  is  stimulating.  The 
teacher  should  try,  not  to  eliminate,  but  to  trans- 
form and  use  this  power. 

The  Collecting  Impulse. — The  assembling  of  great 
numbers  of  any  given  kind  of  thing  is  a  practice 
which   psychologists  treat   as   instinctive.     Caroline 


50  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Burk,^^  who  got  records  from  607  boys  and  as  many 
girls,  writes  upon  this  point :  ^'  When  we  consider 
its  universality  (only  3  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  1 
per  cent,  of  the  girls  questioned  said  they  had  never 
ma:de  collections),  its  widespread  affection  ...  its 
intensity,  the  number  of  collections  children  make 
and  the  interest  children  take  in  them,  .  .  .  the 
variety  of  things  collected,  showing  that  the  mania 


TABLE  VI 

Age 

Av.  per  boy 

Av 

.  per  girl 

Av.  per  c 

6 

1.2 

1.9 

1.5 

7 

2.1 

2.6 

2.3 

8 

3.5 

4.5 

4.0 

9 

3.9 

4.1 

4.0 

10 

4.4 

4.4 

4.4 

11 

3.4 

3.3 

3.3 

12 

3.0 

3.0 

3.0 

13 

3.5 

3.4 

3.4 

14 

3.0 

3.0 

3.0 

15 

2.7 

3.2 

2.9 

16 

2.1 

3.3 

2.7 

17  2.0  3.0  2.5 

seizes  upon  any  and  practically  every  outlet  imagi- 
nable, and  showing,  too,'  that  to  collect  is  more  im- 
portant than  what  is  collected,  when  we  consider, 
moreover,  that  the  phenomenon  has  a  definite  prog- 
ress,— a  rise,  a  growth  and  a  decline,  an  age- 
development, — we  are  inclined  not  to  hesitate  in 
calling  it  an  instinct."  The  impulse  appears  at  least 
as  early  as  the  third  year,  but  it  then  increases  in 


INSTINCT,  CONTINUED  51 

importance  until  its  climax  at  the  age  of  about  ten. 
The  number  of  active  collections  (collections  then  in 
progress)  which  she  reports  per  child  for  the  different 
years  are  shown  in  Table  VI. 

There  is  the  greatest  range  and  variety  in  the  sorts 
of  objects  gathered,  though  some  kinds  are  fairly 
definitely  related  to  certain  age  periods.  Burk  found 
three  chief  stages  in  the  history  of  this  instinct;  in 
the  first,  Avhich  lasts  till  about  the  eighth  year,  chil- 
dren gather  their  possessions  in  a  haphazard  fashion, 
choosing  the  things  which  are  easiest  to  get.  The 
second  period,  which  falls  between  the  ages  of  eight 
and  eleven  or  twelve,  is  the  time  in  which  the  largest 
number  of  collections  is  made,  and  in  which  the  size 
or  quantity  of  each  is  greatest.  The  child  keeps  get- 
ting more  and  more  of  the  same  kind.  In  this  period 
the  "  nature-interest "  is  at  its  height ;  the  child 
collects  stones,  shells,  mosses,  flow^ers,  butterflies,  and 
birds'  eggs.  The  third  or  adolescent  period,  from 
twelve  years  on,  sees  the  lessening  of  this  naturalist 
interest  and  the  increase  of  a  more  humanistic  one. 
If  the  instinct  is  undirected  at  this  time,  Burk  says, 
it  is  likely  "  to  dribble  off  into  sentimental  lines,  as 
in  the  collection  of  party-souvenirs,  theatre-programs, 
etc.,  and  into  social  fads,  as  in  the  collection  of 
spoons,  hatpins,  etc."  If,  on  the  contrary,  some  en- 
couragement is  given  to  the  child's  scientific  impulse, 
he  may  persist  in  and  develop  his  nature-interests, 


52  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

and  he  is  likely,  in  that  case,  in  the  adolescent  period, 
to  pay  more  attention  to  classifying,  arranging,  and 
analyzing  his  collections. 

Pedagogically,  this  impulse  to  collect  is  of  great 
value.  It  is  the  soundest  basis  for  inductive  work 
in  nature-study.  It  makes  itself  felt  in  other  sub- 
jects, as  in  history  or  geography,  where  collections 
of  foreign  stamps  have  given  children  an  interest  in 
studying  the  countries  which  issue  them.  Best  of  all, 
however,  it  is  the  foundation  of  that  mental  habit  of 
gathering  evidence  which  is  the  foundation  of  science, 
and  which  is  essential  to  the  logical  grasp  of  any  sub- 
ject whatsoever. 

Play. — In  classifying  play  among  the  instincts,  one 
finds  the  difficulty  (the  same  that  appears  in  the  case 
of  imitation)  that  play  takes  so  many  shapes,  simu- 
lates such  varied  activities,  that  it  is  hard  to  asso- 
ciate it  with  any  definite  group  of  reflexes.  It  is, 
nevertheless,  a  spontaneous,  unlearned  tendency,  and 
one  which  is  persistent  and  universal.  Much  has  been 
written,  both  of  a  descriptive  and  of  a  theoretical 
nature,  concerning  play,  and  our  object  will  be  to 
enumerate  the  salient  points  in  these  descriptions  and 
theories,  and  to  see  whether  from  among  them  we  can 
arrive  at  some  common  understanding  of  the  nature 
of  play. 

1.  Play  is  the  result  and  expression  of  "  surplus 
energy"  in  the  organism  (Schiller,  Spencer).  ITow, 


INSTINCT,  CONTINUED  53 

while  it  is  clear  that  play  may  be  begun  where  there 
is  no  such  surplus  energy,  and  often  is  kept  up  to  the 
point  of  great  fatigue,  yet  the  phrase  does  express  a 
fact,  namely,  that  play  is,  in  general,  connected  with 
leisure,  and  is  in  a  sense  a  secondary,  or  by-product 
phenomenon. 

2.  Play  is  activity  which  is  pleasurable  in  itself, 
as  distinguished  from  work,  which  is  pleasurable 
only  in  its  results.  Play,  therefore,  is  spontaneous, 
whereas  work  is  imposed  by  some  desired  end.  This 
theory,  again,  has  obvious  exceptions,  and  yet  is  truly 
descriptive  of  many  cases. 

3.  Attention  is  differently  directed  in  play  and  in 
work;  in  play  attention  is  occupied  either  with  the 
process,  or  else  with  some  end  which  is  assumed  to 
be  important  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  play,  as  put- 
ting a  ball  over  a  goal,  whereas  in  work  some  end 
actually  wished  for  in  itself  is  the  object  of  endeavor. 

4.  The  likeness  of  play  to  artistic  creation  is 
sometimes  pointed  out.  Hirn*"  speaks  of  this,  but 
he  also  shows  that  a  permanent  objective  product  is 
a  criterion  which  distinguishes  art  from  play. 

5.  Groos  *^  has  classified  plays  according  to  the 
various  aspects  of  mental  life  which  they  involve. 
There  is,  thus,  play  which  involves  experimentation 
with  the  senses,  there  is  the  exercise  of  muscular 
power,  or  gymnastic  play,  also  plays  which  simulate 
instinctive  and  emotional  responses,  such  as  fighting, 


54  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

flight,  and  love;  then  plays  which  imitate  external 
objects  and  events,  thereby  calling  upon  the  under- 
standing, and  plays  which  are  tests  of  ingenuity  and 
judgment.  Other  writers  have  enumerated  many  of 
the  things  played  with  by  children.  There  is  noth- 
ing, one  may  say,  which  has  not  at  some  time  formed 
the  theme  of  some  play.  It  follows  from  this  that  we 
cannot  distinguish  play  from  work  by  the  kind  of 
act  performed,  because  what  one  person  does  "  for 
fun  "  another  may  do  for  earnest.  We  cannot  dis- 
regard the  intention. 

The  points  thus  far  mentioned  relate  to  the  content 
or  structural  part  of  play,  and  to  the  personal  feel- 
ings of  the  player.  It  is  necessary  to  turn  also  to 
some  of  the  opinions  which  have  been  held  upon  the 
function  or  purpose  of  play  in  the  economy  of  the 
organism. 

6.  Froebel  and  his  students  noticed  the  mimicry 
in  children's  plays,  how  they  reproduced  the  dealings 
of  the  adult  world.  They  began  to  think  of  these 
plays  as  something  symbolic,  and  said  that  they  were 
"  pattern  experiences."  They  planned  to  have  chil- 
dren play  out  a  systematic  series  of  games  which 
were  to  give  them  a  premonitory  taste  of  all  the  im- 
portant experiences  of  the  race. 

7.  Groos,  in  a  somewhat  similar  vein,  developed 
his  theory  that  play  is  a  preparatory  exercise  for 
future  serious  undertakings. 


INSTINCT,  CONTINUED  ,    55 

8.  Hall,  on  tbe  contrary,  suggests  that  play  may  be 
atavistic, — it  may  be  one  of  those  vestigial  parts  of 
human  behavior  which  are  destined  eventually  to 
disappear. 

It  is  the  view  of  the  present  writer  that  most  of  the 
above  theories  and  comments  can  be  unified  by  the 
conception  of  play  as  a  spontaneous  drill,  or  rehearsal, 
or  exercise  of  mastery.  Play  appears  to  be  a  sec- 
ondary rather  than  a  primary  phase  of  activity;  it 
is  essentially  reiterative.  It  is  "  free  "  and  ''  pleas- 
urable "  just  because  it  represents  a  kind  of  mastery 
already  attained.  A  child  who  has  caught  a  new 
trick,  or  learned  a  new  bit  of  skill,  exults  in  admira- 
tion of  himself,  and  cordially  invites  the  whole  world 
to  "  just  see  me  do  this."  We  are  all  like  that;  for 
as  soon  as  we  have  gained  control  of  a  new  process  we 
want  to  try  it  over  and  over,  to  do  it  this  way  and 
that,  to  feel  and  exhibit  our  power  over  it.  We  want, 
in  a  word,  to  play  with  it.  We  cannot  play  at  any- 
thing until  we  have  first  worked  at  it.  When  a  child 
learns  a  ''  piece  "  on  the  piano  he  finds  that  the  first 
stages  are  hard  work,  but  once  the  combinations  be- 
come somewhat  familiar,  he  gives  himself  up  to 
unbridled  repetition.  It  is  not  chiefly  the  music 
which  he  enjoys,  he  could  not  stand  it  to  have  any- 
body else  play  the  same  thing  so  often,  it  is  the  en- 
joyment of  his  own  skill.  Play  is  the  exploitation 
of  technique.     Such  a  view  accounts  for  the  gen- 


56  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

■erally  pleasurable  quality  of  play,  and  for  its  "  sur- 
plus "  character,  inasmuch  as  it  shows  play  to  be  the 
exercise  or  verification  of  conscious  power.  This 
view  agrees  with  the  fact  that  in  play  attention  is 
more  concerned  with  the  process  than  with  any  ex- 
ternal product ;  it  recognizes  the  imitative  nature  of 
play  because  it  regards  play  as  the  practice,  drill,  or 
repetition  of  some  act  already  performed  ;  and,  finally, 
it  is  consistent  with  the  theory  that  play  has  a  func- 
tion as  a  preparatory  exercise  for  future  activity.  It 
differs  from  that  theory  only  so  far  as  to  maintain 
that  play  is  not  anticipatory,  i.  e.,  is  not  the  initial 
state  of  any  act,  but  is  a  practice  stage  in  which  we 
become  familiar  with  the  new  idea  and  confirm  our 
hold  upon  it. 

Play  as  a  teaching  device  has  been  utilized  from 
the  days  of  the  Egyptians  to  the  present.  The  Greeks 
and  Eomans,  as  Plato  and  Quintilian  attest,  knew  its 
convenience.  But  the  psychological  analysis  of  play 
and  the  full  recognition  of  its  pedagogical  impor- 
tance are  modern.  Play  has  now  become  an  estab- 
lished method  which  has  a  contribution  to  offer  to 
practically  every  subject  in  the  curriculum. 

It  is  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  know  whether  the 
particular  form  of  play  theory  which  the  teacher 
adopts  will  make  any  difference  in  his  use  of  the  play 
method.  This  much  it  is  safe  to  assume  from  the 
preceding  discussion,  namely,  that  play  does  not  re- 


INSTINCT,  CONTINUED  57 

quire  a  set  of  activities  disparate  in  content  from  the 
serious  business  of  the  school.  It  is  not  necessary  for 
the  teacher  to  import  into  the  schoolroom  one  set  of 
materials  for  play  and  another  set  for  work.  Many 
of  the  ordinary  school  exercises  can  be  transformed 
into  play  by  the  simplest  suggestions,  such  as  taking 
sides,  holding  hands  in  a  circle,  or  being  timed  by  a 
stop-watch.  Pleasure  in  skill  for  its  own  sake  and  a 
genuine  impulse  to  practise  seem  to  be  normally 
present  in  the  average  child.  Games  merely  give  a 
varied  background  for  the  exercise  of  skill,  and  per- 
haps add  the  competitive  element.  Furthermore,  if 
our  previous  analysis  is  correct,  play  is  not  the  right 
medium  for  the  first  introduction  of  a  new  topic.  If 
play  depends  upon  a  certain  ease,  or  mastery  already 
attained,  then  obviously  we  cannot  play  with  an  idea 
when  we  are  just  getting  it.  The  acquisition  of  novel 
conceptions  is  too  absorbing,  the  learning  of  new 
combinations  of  movements  too  hard,  to  be  done  in 
the  play  spirit.  Play  has  an  indispensable  function 
in  the  school  program  in  enlivening  the  drill  exer- 
cises, but  it  ought  by  no  means  to  dominate  every 
school  situation. 


CHAPTEE  V 

THE    GROWTH    OF    BEHAVIOR.      MOTOR 
CAPACITIES 

Fundamental  and  Accessory. — A  general  distinc- 
tion of  some  practical  importance  in  the  kinds  of 
movement  which  the  child  performs  is  the  differ- 
ence between  fundamental  and  accessory.  Burk  ** 
has  popularized  in  pedagogic  thought  the  three-level 
theory  of  neural  activity  proposed  by  Hughlings- 
Jackson.  According  to  this  theory  the  lower  levels 
of  the  nervous  system,  viz.,  the  cord,  the  medulla  and 
the  pons,  are  biologically  older  than  the  higher  levels, 
and  they  control  those  movements  which  are  acquired 
earlier  both  by  the  individual  and  the  race.  The 
higher  levels,  on  the  contrary,  control  the  finer  adjust- 
ments which  are  the  latest  to  be  acquired.  Funda- 
mental movements  involve  the  more  massive  muscles 
and  larger  joints,  such  as  are  concerned  in  the  pos- 
tures of  sitting,  standing,  holding  up  the  head  and 
lifting  the  arms,  or  in  locomotion,  as  creeping,  walk- 
ing, rolling,  running,  jumping,  balancing,  swimming. 
They  pertain  to  the  body  as  a  whole,  or  to  large  di- 
visions of  it.    These  movements  have  some  similarity 

58 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  59 

and  comraimity  of  purpose  with  those  of  auimals. 
Tliey  are  said  to  be  the  last  to  disappear  in  case  of 
paralysis  or  of  the  progressive  degeneration  of  the 
motor  powers.     In  contrast  to  all  this,  the  accessory 
movements  are  those  which  are  performed  by  the  finer 
muscles   and   are   controlled  by   the   higher   centers. 
They  do  not  so  obviously  call  the  whole  body  into 
l)lay,  but  rather  are  confined  to  some  part  of  it.     Ex- 
amples are  the  movements  of  writing,  sewing,  finger- 
ing musical  instruments,  singing,  and  talking.    These 
are  the  ones  which  are  often  imperfect  or  lacking  in 
mental  defectives,  and  which  are  the  first  to  break 
down  in  mental  disease.     It  is  not  true,  of  course, 
that   all   those   movements   which   conduce   to   gross 
bodily  control  are  perfected  before  any  use  of  the 
accessory  muscles  begins.      Indeed,  the  first  begin- 
nings of  vocalization  and  manipulation,  as  well  as 
eye-movements  and  many  small  reflexes,  appear  long 
before  the  child. can  walk.     But  it  is  true  that  the 
development  of  the  vocal,  manual,  and  ocular  capaci- 
ties   to    anything  like   their   characteristic    delicacy 
comes  much    later    than    the    larger    control    move- 
ments. 

Certain  experiments  made  by  Bryan  ^^'^  on  the  rate 
of  tapping  with  the  finger,  wrist,  elbow,  and  shoulder 
show  that  the  skill  which  each  of  these  parts  will 
have  at  maturity  develops  early  for  elbow  and  shoul- 
der, and  late  for  wrist  and  finger.     The  tables  are 


60  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

here  reproduced  as  condensed  by  Burk  (op.  cit.). 
The  numbers  are  the  arithmetical  mean  of  the  num- 
ber of  taps  per  five-second  interval.  Thus  the  mean 
number  of  finger  taps  for  a  five-year-old  boy  is  19.6. 

TABLE  VII 

BOYS 

Age 5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16 

Number 14  26  35  33  43  37  36  33  34  41  32  26 

Finger 19.6  19.5  21.0  23.1  24.4  25.5  27.0  29.3  28.7  31.5  316  3:^9 

Wrist 20.1  23.0  23.7  26.3  27.8  28  5  30  3  31.6  32.3  33.0  34.3  35.9 

Elbow 22.7  23.5  24.2  26.1  28.2  28.1  29.3  29.9  31.0  32.7  31.5  32.7 

Shoulder. ...  18.4  19.8  20.5  22.3  24.1  22.6  24.1  25.0  25.5  27.2  26.3  28.7 

GIRLS 

Age 6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16 

Number 28  32  33  43  37  36  33  34  41  32  26 

Finger 19.8  20.7  22.2  24.0  2,j.8  27.1  28.2  30.3  29.5  29.1  31.3 

Wrist 21.6  a3.1  24.3  25.5  28.5  30.4  31.6  33.2  .30.3  30.9  33  3 

Elbow 22.7  2S2  24.4  2.5.4  27.5  28  6  29.4  .30.5  28.8  29.3  .30.1 

Shoulder 19.9  20.2  21.9  22.7  22.6  24.9  25.7  27.5  26.6  26  0  27.9 

It  also  appears  from  experiments  made  by  Han- 
cock *^  that  the  order  of  development  of  control  is, — 
body,  shoulder,  arm,  forearm,  and  hand.  The  im- 
portance of  this  distinction  between  fundamental  and 
accessory  in  the  planning  of  school  work  is  apparent. 
That  Avhich  requires  the  close  application  of  eyes 
and  fingers  should  come  later  than  the  exercises 
which  involve  the  larger  uses  of  arms,  legs,  and 
body. 

Atavistic  Movements. — Before  turning  to  the 
growth  of  those  motor  responses  with  which  educa- 
tion must  reckon,  it  is  in  place  to  note  that  some  of 
the  young  child's  movements  are  destined  to  an  early 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  61 

elimination,  quite  aside  from  any  interference  with 
them  on  the  part  of  his  elders.  There  are,  in  other 
words,  atavistic  or  vestigial  motions  which,  like  the 
vestigial  organs,  are  reminiscent  of  earlier  racial  ex- 
perience. Robinson's  oft-cited  observations  on  the 
clinging  power  of  very  young  infants  is  one  illus- 
tration of  the  type.  Children,  when  only  an  hour 
old,  were  able  to  support  their  own  weight  by  hang- 
ing to  a  stick  which  they  grasped  in  their  hands. 
This  power  attained  a  maximum  at  the  end  of  two 
or  three  weeks  and  then  declined.  The  movements 
of  a  baby's  hands  and  feet  are  more  like  the  ape's 
movements  than  they  are  like  those  of  the  human 
adult.  Swimming  motions,  made  by  some  children 
when  they  are  laid  face  down,  have  also  been  noted  as 
probable  survival  movements.  These  facts  suggest  a 
line  of  criticism  upon  any  pedagogical  theory  which 
insists  upon  ''  the  development  of  all  the  powers  " 
with  impartial  emphasis.  Some  of  our  instincts  may 
be  already  on  the  road  to  elimination,  while  others 
which  seem  inconspicuous  now  may  be  destined  for 
a  larger  future. 

General  Muscular  Growth. — Of  all  the  org-ans  of 
the  body  the  muscles  show  the  most  striking  increase. 
The  following  table  (Table  VIII),  of  Quctelet's, 
quoted  in  HalP*^  shows  something  of  the  course  of 
that  growth  between  the  years  of  ten  and  twenty-seven. 
It  gives  the  lifting  power  in  kilograms  for  men  and 


62  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

women.  In  this  test,  Hall  says,  the  part  played 
by  the  back,  legs,  hips,  and  arms  is  not  dilferentiated. 
Hence  it  may  be  taken  as  a  rough  kind  of  general 
measure  of  growth   in  muscular   capacity.      It   ap- 


TABLE  VIII 

Annual  Gain 

Age 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Worn* 

10 

45 

31 

11 

48 

35 

3 

4 

12 

52 

39 

4 

4 

13 

63 

43 

11 

4 

14 

71 

47 

8 

4 

15 

80 

51 

9 

4 

16 

95 

57 

15 

6 

17 

110 

63 

15 

6 

18 

118 

67 

8 

4 

19 

125 

71 

7 

4 

20 

132 

74 

7 

3 

21 

138 

76 

6 

2 

22 

143 

78 

5 

2 

23 

147 

80 

4 

2 

25 

153 

82 

6 

2 

27 

154 

83 

1 

1 

pears,  on  this  scale,  that  the  greatest  annual  in- 
crease is  at  the  age  of  sixteen  and  seventeen  for  both 
sexes.  Women  have,  at  every  age,  less  absolute 
strength  than  men,  and  their  relative  strength  de- 
creases with  age.  At  the  age  of  ten,  women  have 
sixty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  strength  of  men,  but  at 
twenty-seven,  they  have  only  fifty-three  per  cent,  of 
men's  strength. 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  63 

Some   Special   Motor   Capacities.     Walking. — A 

child's  first  attempts  at  locomotion  of  any  kind  arc 
preceded  by  a  large  amount  of  general  arm  and  leg 
exercise.  Usually  creeping  is  learned  before  walk- 
ing, though  not  all  children  pass  through  the  creeping 
stage.  The  age  at  which  walking  begins  varies  rather 
widely  with  individuals,  and  is  occasionally  preceded 
by  the  beginnings  of  speech.  Mead  *''  made  a  study 
of  the  age  of  walking  and  talking  in  relation  to  gen- 
eral intelligence  with  twenty-five  boys  and  as  many 
girls,  all  of  them  normal  children.  He  reports  that: 
"  Boys  begin  to  walk  at  13.875  months,  with  a  prob- 
able error  of  .97  month;  and  begin  to  talk  at  16.5 
months,  with  a  probable  error  of  2.75  months.  Girls 
begin  to  walk  at  13.21  months,  with  a  probable  error 
of  1.12  months;  and  begin  to  talk  at  15.5  months, 
with  a  probable  error  of  2.68  months." 

What  part  does  instruction  play  in  the  art  of  walk- 
ing. I  once  heard  a  lady  reproach  her  niece  with 
ingratitude.  "  And  I  taught  her  to  walk !  "  she  said. 
The  implication  was  that  the  young  lady  would  have 
found  it  pretty  inconvenient  to  go  through  life  with- 
out this  accomplishment.  This  view  of  the  matter  is 
not  infrequent,  namely,  that  walking  is  a  habit  chiefly 
due  to  instruction.  It  is  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that 
walking  is  instinctive,  and  that  it  is  bound  to  take 
place  when  the  organism  is  ready  for  it,  provided 
only  that  the  customary  stimuli,  i.e.,  a  floor  to  walk 


64  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

on  and  a  support  to  cling  to  for  a  time,  are  not  abso- 
lutely withheld.  The  attempt  to  hasten  the  child 
before  the  natural  moment  or  to  delay  him  much 
beyond  it  is  ill-advised  and  perhaps  injurious.  Chil- 
dren of  school  age  can  undoubtedly  profit  by  cor- 
rection in  their  gait.  There  are,  of  course,  various 
opinions  as  to  what  is  correct  walking.  Military 
rules  prescribe  now  one,  now  another  type,  such  as 
the  erect  carriage,  the  goose-step,  and  the  lope. 
Fashion  indorses  some  gaits  and  taboos  others.  More- 
over, when  the  natural  forms  of  locomotion  are  prac- 
tised as  athletic  events,  walking,  running,  jumping, 
etc.,  each  event  develops  its  own  technique,  and  there 
are  many  special  points  of  form  which  the  coach  must 
teach.  There  are,  however,  certain  common  elements 
of  good  form  which  conduce  to  beaut}'  and  economy 
in  ordinary  walking,  and  these  should  be  taught  to 
children.  To  cultivate  a  narrow  tread,  to  hold  the 
feet  in  a  straight  line  to  the  front,  to  keep  the  chest 
advanced,  to  balance  on  the  ball  of  the  foot,  etc.,  all 
these  need  to  be  raised  to  level  of  conscious  attention 
for  the  majority  of  children.  It  is  at  least  as  impor- 
tant that  a  child  should  have  a  good  carriage  as  that 
he  should  write  a  legible  hand. 

Breathing. — The  respiration  reflexes  would  seem 
to  be  even  further  removed  from  the  need  of  tuition 
than  the  walking  reflexes,  and  during  the  child's 
earliest  years  probably  little  can  be  done  to  modify 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  65 

them.  The  breathing-  of  the  infant,  Preyer  says,  ib 
very  irregular  during  the  first  weeks  of  life.  The 
character  of  his  son's  breathing  became  predomi- 
nantly regular  in  the  seventeenth  month.  The  rate 
of  breathing  is  said  to  be  between  thirty  and  fifty 
per  minute  in  the  new-born  child,  and  between 
twenty-five  and  thirty-five  during  the  first  year. 
Adult  breathing  is,  in  comparison,  slow  and  regular. 
A  large  vital  or  breathing  capacity  is  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  good  health,  and  it  is  possible  to  increase 
this  capacity  by  specific  exercises.  The  normal  in- 
crease of  vital  capacity  due  to  age  is  indicated  in 
Smedley's  tables ""  as  ranging  from  1,023  cubic 
centimeters  for  six-year-old  boys,  and  950  cc.  for  six- 
year-old  girls,  to  3,655  cc.  and  2,343  cc.  respectively 
for  boys  and  girls  of  eighteen  years.  Boys  and  men 
have,  at  all  ages,  larger  vital  capacity  than  girls  and 
women  of  the  corresponding  years.  The  years  of  most 
rapid  gain  for  boys  are  from  fifteen  to  seventeen,  and 
for  girls,  from  thirteen  to  fifteen. 

The  necessity  for  teaching  correct  breathing  has 
long  been  recognized  by  teachers  of  singing  and  pub- 
lic speaking,  and  the  school  is  now  realizing  that 
here,  too,  is  one  of  its  duties.  The  practice  of  mouth- 
breathing  must  be  watched  for  and  checked.  Where 
the  physician  finds  this  to  be  the  result  of  adenoids, 
an  operation  must  be  recommended,  but  where  it  is 
merely  a  bad  habit,  the  teacher  must  change  it.    Em- 


66  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

phasis  has  recently  been  laid  upon  the  relation  o£ 
stammering  to  incorrect  breathing,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  breathing  habit  has  been  a  means  of 
effecting  some  cures  for  speech  defect. 

The  educational  means  for  dealing  with  the  funda- 
mental movements  and  reflexes  which  we  have  been 
discussing  is  the  use  of  gymnastic  exercises,  sports, 
dancing,  out-of-door  work  like  gardening.  These 
should  hold  first  place  in  the  curriculum  for  young 
children.  Particularly  interesting  and  promising  is 
the  role  of  the  dance.  Its  rhythmic  character  and  the 
unlimited  variety  of  movements  which  it  includes 
make  it  an  adequate  substitute  for  the  ordinary  set-up 
drill,  while  its  artistic  quality  gives  to  the  exercise  an 
intellectual  leaven  which  makes  it  a  permanently 
interesting  possession.  Added  to  this  is  the  historical 
meaning  which  attaches  to  the  folk-dance.  Dramatic 
enactment  and  the  mimetic  dance  are  the  best  pos- 
sible introduction  and  setting  to  the  study  of  the  his- 
tories and  customs  of  other  peoples.  The  dance  is, 
therefore,  a  cultural  agency  which  is  at  once  physi- 
cal, intellectual,  and  esthetic.  In  its  simpler  forms  it 
exercises  only  the  more  massive  muscles  and  funda- 
mental co-ordinations.  It  is  one  of  the  best  pedagogic 
assets  for  the  discipline  of  young  children. 

Hand  Control. — Manual  control  is  a  phrase  which 
stands  for  no  single  unitary  act,  but  for  a  myriad 
of  individual  acts  which  make  up  one  great  realm 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  67 

of  those  accessory  movements  which  have  been  con- 
trasted with  the  fimdamentaL  The  complexities  of 
man's  manual  achievements  have  often  been  com- 
pared with  those  of  speech.  It  is  said  that  we  differ 
from  the  animals  not  less  through  the  skill  of  the 
hands  than  through  sjieech  itself.  The  growth  of  this 
skill  is  a  long  and  complex  process.  The  first  use  of 
the  hands  in  grasping  and  clinging  is  an  undifferenti- 
ated use.  According  to  the  observations  of  the 
Gesells  '^^  the  hand  movements  are,  for  months, 
simultaneous,  the  child  not  being  able  to  do  different 
things  at  the  same  time  with  the  two  hands.  Also 
the  fingers  move  in  parallel  lines,  not  independently. 
These  authors  point  out  that  idiots  never  overcome 
this  simultaneity  of  hand  movement,  but  that  it  be- 
gins to  break  up,  with  normal  children,  during  the 
eighth  month.  Other  writers  speak  of  the  "  simian  " 
method  of  handling  objects  as  being  characteristic  of 
young  children.  Major  ^°  found  that  this  persisted 
in  his  child  until  the  end  of  the  third  year.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  separate  use  of  the  thumb,  and  its  op- 
position to  the  fingers,  is  thus  a  fairly  late  bit  of 
])rogress. 

The  strength  of  grip  for  children  of  different  ages 
has  been  studied  by  the  use  of  the  dynamometer. 
Smedley  (op.  cif.)  gives  the  following  values  in  kilo- 
grams  (Table  IX).     This  table  shows  a  steady  in- 


68  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

TABLE  IX 

Boys  Girls 

Age  Rt.  Hand      Lt.  Hand  Rt.  Hand      Lt.  Hand 

6   9.21  8.48  8.36  7.74 

7   10.74        10.11  9.88  9.24 

8   12.41         11.67  11.16         10.48 

9   14.34        13.47  12.77         11.97 

10  16.52  15.59  14.65  13.72 

11  18.85  17.72  16.54  15.52 

12  21.24  19.71  18.92  17.78 

13  24.44  22.51  21.84  20.39 

14  28.42  26.22  24.79  22.92 

15  33.39  30.88  27.00  24.92 

16  39.37  36.39  28.70  26.56 

17  44.74  40.96  29.56  27.43 

18  49.28  45.01  29.75  27.66 

crease  for  boys,  wliich  is  most  rapid  from  fourteen  to 
eighteen,  and  an  increase  for  girls  wliicb  is  most 
rapid  from  eleven  to  fourteen.  The  girls  are  inferior 
in  grip  at  all  ages :  at  six  they  have  90  per  cent,  of 
the  strength  of  boys  for  the  right  hand,  91  per  cent, 
for  the  left  hand,  and  at  eighteen  they  have  but  60 
per  cent,  and  61  per  cent,  for  the  right  and  left  hands 
respectively.  There  is  some  evidence,  summarized  in 
Whipple,'"  to  show  that  strength  of  grip  correlates 
with  intelligence.  Bright  children  seem,  on  the 
whole,  to  excel  dull  ones  in  strength  of  grip,  and  men- 
tal defectives  are  deficient  also  in  this  measurement. 
One  of  the  most  striking  facts  of  hand  development 
is  dextrality,  or  the  superiority  of  one  hand,  usually 
the  right,  over  the  other.     According  to  Baldwin  ^' 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  69 

the  difference  began  to  be  apparent  in  his  child  as 
early  as  her  ninth  month.  He  noted  the  number  of 
times  the  child  would  reach  for  a  desired  object  with 
the  right  hand  and  with  the  left.  When  the  object 
was  equidistant  from  the  two  hands,  she  used  to  take 
both  hands  or  either  hand  indifferently ;  but  in  the 
ninth  month,  if  the  object  were  conveniently  near,  the 
child  more  frequently  used  the  left  hand ;  whereas,  if 
the  object  were  further  off  and  required  an  effort, 
she  used  the  right.  Thus  the  right  hand  became  the 
preferred  one  for  the  difficult  reaches,  and  the 
left  for  the  more  common  task.  Mrs.  Woolley^^ 
repeated  and  confirmed  Baldwin's  observations,  and 
found  that  her  child's  right  hand  came  to  be  pre- 
ferred for  the  wider  reaches  as  early  as  the  seventh 
month. 

The  ])roportion  of  left-handed  persons  to  the  whole 
community  is  commonly  put  at  two  per  cent.,  though 
some  believe  that  it  would  be  much  larger  if  all  those 
could  be  counted  in  who  were  originally  left-handed 
but  had  been  compelled  to  cultivate  the  right.  Bal- 
lard ^^^  indeed  finds  that  about  four  per  cent.,  among 
London  school  children,  are  pure  sinistrals.  The  dis- 
advantages accruing  to  left-handed  persons  have  been 
eloquently  described  by  Gould. ^^  In  the  use  of 
weapons,  in  fingering  stringed  instruments,  in  work- 
ing with  surgical  instruments  or  industrial  tools,  the 
left-handed  are  seriously  inconvenienced.     Our  sys- 


70  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

tern  of  penmanship  is  ill-suited  to  them,  since  its 
motions  are  obviously  the  outgrowth  of  right-handed 
practice.  A  left-handed  teacher  cannot  be  easily  imi- 
tated, and  hence  is  at  a  disadvantage  in  demonstrating 
manual  exercises.  These  facts  raise  the  question 
whether  the  left-handed  child  ought  to  be  trained  into 
a  right-handed  one.  This  question,  in  turn,  leads 
to  the  more  general  one,  as  to  whether  it  is  feasible 
or  desirable  to  train  all  children  to  be  ambidextrous. 
Societies  have  been  formed  for  the  encouragement  of 
ambidexterity,  under  the  conviction  that  the  human 
race  is  wasting  its  opportunities  in  neglecting  the  use 
of  the  less  skilled  band.  It  is  probable,  however,  that 
dextrality  is  no  mere  accident  of  early  training,  but 
is  an  innate  and  thoroughly  persistent  tendency. 
Wilson  ^^  argues  that  prehistoric  man  was  right- 
handed.  He  adduces,  among  other  evidences,  the 
profile  drawings  of  primitive  men.  He  says  that  a 
spontaneous  profile  drawing,  e.g.,  of  a  face,  if  done 
by  a  right-handed  draftsman,  will  be  represented 
looking  to  the  left ;  whereas,  if  it  is  done  by  a  left- 
handed  draftsman,  it  will  be  looking  to  the  right. 
According  to  this  test,  he  maintains  that  primitive 
man  was  right-handed.  I  tried  this  test  upon  fifty 
right-handed  and  two  left-handed  persons.  All  but 
three  drew  the  profile  as  Wilson  says,  i.e.,  both  left- 
handed  subjects  drew  the  profile  facing  to  the  right, 
and  forty-seven  right-handed  subjects  drew  it  facing 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  71 

to  the  left.  Of  the  other  three,  one  subject  reports 
herself  as  nearly  ambidextrous.  It  would  seem,  then, 
from  the  observations  upon  young  children,  and  from 
the  probable  facts  about  primitive  men,  but  prin- 
cipally from  the  real  difficulties  which  children  ex- 
perience in  trying  to  cultivate  other-handedness,  that 
dextrality  is  an  inborn  tendency. 

Evil  results  are  said  to  follow  the  attempt  to  make 
a  child  change  from  using  the  hand  which  he  natu- 
rally prefers.  Nervousness,  depression,  awkwardness 
in  hand-work,  and  possibly  speech  defect  are  among 
the  alleged  effects.  Ballard  ^^^  made  a  statistical 
study  upon  this  point,  and  he  presents  results  which 
deserve  careful  consideration.     His  figures  are : 

Children    observed    13,189 

Dextrals   12,644 

Sinistrals 545 

Dextro-sinistrals    399 

Stammerers 160 

Dextro-sinistral  stammerers  17 

The  dextro-sinistrals  are  those  children  who  were 
originally  left-handed,  but  who  had  been  made  to 
use  the  right.  These  figures  show  that  the  ratio  of 
dextro-sinistral  stammerers  to  the  whole  number  of 
dextro-sinistrals  is  greater  than  the  ratio  of  stam- 
merers in  general  to  children  in  general.  Among  the 
purely  left-handed  the  proportion  of  stammerers  is 
no    greater    than    among    the    purely    right-handed. 


72  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

These  facts  raise  a  presumption  that  there  is  some 
connection  between  stammering  and  ambidexterity. 
A  more  detailed  study  of  the  dextro-sinistral  group 
yielded  the  fact  that  17  per  cent,  stammered  at  the 
time  of  the  inquiry,  but  that  25.8  per  cent,  had  stam- 
mered at  some  time  in  their  past.  These  figures  do 
not,  of  course,  prove  that  speech  defect  is  certain 
to  follow  upon  the  attempt  to  change  from  one 
hand  to  the  other,  but  they  are  enough  to  consti- 
tute a  serious  drawback  to  the  cultivation  of  ambidex- 
terity. 

In  giving  statistics  for  right-  and  left-handedness 
a  distinction  should  be  made  between  ,superior  skill 
and  superior  strength  of  the  one  hand  over  the  other. 
The  ratio  of  those  who  are  left-handed  in  skill  is  prob- 
ably not  greater  than  four  or  five  per  cent.,  whereas, 
the  proportion  of  those  who  have  greater  strength  in 
the  left  hand  is  considerably  larger.  I  found,  among 
one  hundred  eighteen-year-old  girls,  only  one  who  was 
left-handed  for  writing,  but  twenty  who  had  an  index 
of  dextrality  (i.e.,  proportion  of  left-hand  strength 
to  right-hand  strength)  of  one  hundred  or  over.  It  is 
sometimes  said  that  a  large  difference  between  the  two 
hands  is  a  sign  of  maturity.  Thus  Whipple  ^°  writes : 
"  Dextrality,  i.e.,  superiority  of  one  hand  over  the 
other,  is  evident  when  the  child  enters  school,  but 
becomes  increasingly  evident  as  maturity  approaches, 
and  especially  at  puberty,  so  that  a  heightened  dif- 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  73 

fercnce  in  the  strength  of  the  hands  may  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  characteristic  indications  of  pubertal 
change."  I  find  some  difficulty  in  verifying  this  point 
from  the  published  tables.  If  one  computes  the  index 
of  right-handedness  from  Smedley's  tables  quoted 
above  (p.  68),  one  finds  the  ratios  to  be  as  follows 
(Table  X)  : 

TABLE  X 

Age  BoyB  Girls 

6  92  92 

7  94  93 

8  94  93 

9  93  93 

10  94  93 

11   94  93 

12  92  93 

13   92  93 

14  92  92 

15  92  92 

16  92  92 

17   91  92 

18  91  92 

Turning  to  Hastings's  tables  (quoted  in  Hall  ^^^), 
we  find  measurements  for  5,476  children,  boys  and 
girls  being  grouped  together.  One  finds  the  indices 
running  as  follows:  beginning  with  the  five-year-olds, 
96  per  cent.,  81  per  cent.,  92,  89,  95,  89,  93,  90,  90. 
Here  the  difference  between  the  two  hands  is  greatest 
at  the  age  of  six.  I  have  also  tried  to  find  a  correla- 
tion Avithin  a  homogeneous  group,  between  the  index  of 
dextrality  and  the  absolute  right-hand  strength.     For 


74  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

one  hundred  girls,  averaging  eighteen  years,  this  com- 
parison gave  r  =^  .159,  p.e.,  .043.  If  the  tv/entj 
individuals  whose  index  of  dextralitj  is  one  hundred 
or  more  are  taken  out  of  this  group  and  the  correla- 
tion computed  for  the  remaining  eighty,  the  result  is 
r  =  .025,  p.e.,  .047.  Whipple  "  (Vol.  I,  p.  16)  pub- 
lishes individual  records  for  right-  and  left-hand  grip 
for  fifty  boys.  I  have  computed  the  index  of  dextral- 
ity  for  the  individuals  in  this  group  and  compared  it 
with  the  order  of  strength  of  the  right  hand,  with  the 
result  r  =  .015,  p.e.,  .094.  Excluding  from  this 
group  the  seventeen  boys  whose  index  is  one  hundred 
or  more,  r  =  —  .134,  p.e.,  .121.  We  know  that 
strength  of  grip  increases  with  maturity,  but  we  do 
not  find  from  these  figures  that  the  difference  be- 
tween right-  and  left-hand  strength  correlates  either 
with  maturity  or  with  strength  of  grip. 

The  educational  value  of  manual  exercises  has  re- 
ceived an  ever-widening  recognition  during  the  last 
half-century.  It  has  won  an  assured  place,  not  only 
in  the  training  of  defectives,  but  in  the  instruction  of 
normal  children  as  well.  There  are,  of  course,  many 
unsolved  problems  connected  with  the  teaching  of 
manual  training;  one  hears  that  it  has  proved  a  dis- 
appointment ;  but  in  some  form  or  other  this  general 
type  of  instruction  is  sure  to  retain  its  place  in  the 
school  program.  Ballard  ^^''  gives  an  account  of  the 
changes  which  were  effected  in  certain  of  the  English 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  75 

schools  by  the  introduction  of  hand-work.  The  work 
of  the  children  in  the  purely  academic  branches  im- 
proved under  the  stimulation  of  the  manual  courses. 
In  one  school  the  change  was  reflected  also  in  the 
decreased  number  of  school  punishments  which  had 
to  be  recorded  after  the  installation  of  hand-work. 
Ballard  gives  some  figures  on  the  correlation  between 
general  school  standing  and  standing  in  manual  work. 
With  younger  children  there  is  a  rather  high  correla- 
tion between  intelligence,  as  measured  by  school  rank, 
and  motor  skill,  as  measured  by  rank  in  manual 
courses.  With  older  children  the  correlation  is  less 
marked. 

The  theory  of  hand-work  is  that  it  is  primarily  a 
training  of  mind  and  character,  and  only  secondarily 
a  training  in  specific  acts  of  skill.  Salomon  ^^  avers 
that  the  best  and  chief  results  of  sloyd  would  still  be 
retained  even  though  the  child  who  had  been  trained 
in  it  were  to  lose  both  his  hands. 

Eye-Hand  Co-ordinations. — The  eyes  and  hands 
show  independent  responses  to  objective  stimuli  long 
before  they  can  co-operate  in  dealing  with  the  same 
object.  Co-ordinated  eye-movements  are  sometimes 
made  by  children  during  the  first  days  of  life,  though 
very  often  the  eyes  move  at  first  more  or  less  inde- 
pendently of  each  other.  On  the  twenty-third  day 
Preyer  discerned  in  his  son  the  fixation  and  following 
of  a  candle  flame.     Moore  "  reports  this  as  taking 


76  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

place  on  the  second  day  in  the  case  of  her  son,  and  on 
the  fourth  day  in  the  case  of  her  daughter.  Jacoby  ^* 
uses  this  fixation  test  as  an  index  of  mental  develop- 
ment. If  the  reflex  is  not  present  at  the  end  of  the 
first  year  the  child  is  considered  to  be  retarded.  It 
is  not  until  the  third  or  fourth  month  of  the  child's 
life  that  he  can  manage  to  reach  out  and  grasp  an 
object  at  which  he  is  looking,  and  long  after  this  age 
large  errors  are  made  in  estimating  the  distance  of 
objects.  The  process  of  gaining  control  over  eye- 
hand  co-ordinations  will  be  mentioned  in  connection 
with  the  learning  process.  Many  special  acts  are  to 
be  included  in  this  category,  such  as  writing,  draw- 
ing, the  multitude  of  skilled  acts  required  by  the 
fine  and  the  industrial  arts,  and  the  numerous  adjust- 
ments of  daily  life.  Such  of  these  processes  as  call 
for  great  delicacy  and  precision  should  certainly  not 
be  required  of  the  young  child.  Neither  his  stage 
of  physiological  development  nor  his  intellectual 
interests  will  warrant  any  insistence  upon  minute 
accuracy. 

Voice  Control. — There  is  a  kind  of  vocal  experi- 
mentation or  play  described  by  Groos  Avhich  is  the 
basis  of  later  conscious  vocalization.  Preyer  main- 
tains that  the  great  majority  of  the  sounds  which  the 
child  will  later  use  in  articulate  speech  are  actually 
formed  correctly  by  him  as  early  as  the  eighth  month 
of  life,  and  that  he  utters  other  complex  sounds  which 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES 


77 


never  are  needed.  These  first  sounds  are  not  lan- 
o-i.age,  because  they  are  not  used  with  specific  mean- 
ings; they  are  simply  a  series  of  gymnastic  exer- 
cises. This  impulse  to  vocalize,  guided  by  the 
tendency  to  imitate,  brings  the  child  to  the  begin- 
nings of  speech  at  about  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
month,    as   we   have   seen. 

Opinion  is  uniform  on  the  point  that  right  train- 
ing in  vocal  habits  ought  to  begin  at  a  very  early  age. 
The  establishment  of  correct  pronunciation  of  a  for- 
eign language  usually  needs  an  early  start,  though 
nine  or  ten  is  not  too  late  for  the  first  instruction  in 


a  foreign  tongue,  unless  one  has  an  exaggerated  re- 
gard for  absolute  purity  of  enunciation. 

The  training  of  the  singing  voice  has  its  many  spe- 
cial problems.  One  of  these  is  the  question  of  the 
musical  ear,  which  will  be  touched  upon  in  the  next 
chapter.  Another  is  the  determination  of  the  ordi- 
nary range  for  the  voices  of  children  of  various  ages. 
The  accompanying  diagram.  Fig.  6,  is  presented  by 
Gutzmann.'^    The  half  notes  represent  the  range  for 


78 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


boys,  the  quarter  notes  the  range  for  girls.  Individual 
voices  range  higher  and  lower  than  these  limits,  but 
the  ranges  given  represent  seventy-five  per  cent,  of 
the  voices  examined  by  this  investigator,  and  are  a 
safe  guide  for  the  majority.  The  changes  which  occur 
at  puberty  are  shown  for  boys'  and  girls'  voices  in 
Fig.  7,  also  from  Gutzmann. 

The  question  of  chorus-singing  in  schools  is  one 
upon  which  competent   opinion  is   divided.        The 


/\ 

J 

(U 

' \ ^' 

(^ 

6 

vj 

h 

J^ 

J 

—^ 

6 

Fig.  7. 


points  to  be  made  in  its  favor  are  the  pleasure  which 
it  gives  to  those  who  take  part,  the  training  which  it 
gives  in  the  reading  of  music,  and  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual effect  of  the  team-work  which  is  involved 
in  any  ensemble  exercise.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
teachers  of  singing  believe  that  there  is  danger  of 
injuring  the  finer  voices  in  allowing  them  to  sing  in 
chorus.  Moreover,  in  chorus-work  it  is  impossible 
to  keep  any  delicate  check  on  accuracy  of  tone  pro- 
duction by  individuals,  and  hence  bad  habits  may 


MOTOR  CAPACITIES  79 

become  fixed.  The  significant  work  of  Seashore's 
laboratory  in  the  tonoscope  measurements  of  vocal 
mnsic  is  giving  lis  a  new  conception  of  the  possible 
delicacy  of  voice  control,  and  of  the  effect  upon  it  of 
adequate  objective  registration  and  criticism. 


CHAPTEE  VI 

THE  GKOWTH  OF  BEHAVIOR     SENSORY 
CAPACITIES 

Is  Sensation  a  Kind  of  Behavior? — If  we  think  of 
sensations  as  mental  elements  or  atoms  we  can 
scarcely  call  them  modes  of  behavior,  but  if  we  think 
of  them  as  so  many  acts  of  discrimination  there  is 
no  difficulty.  The  idea  that  the  mind  is  '^  made  up 
of  "  simple  elements  is  a  figure  of  speech.  Along 
with  the  perception  of  color,  taste,  temperature  and 
the  like,  we  classify  perceptions  of  space  and  time. 
Now,  we  do  not  conceive  that  the  mind  is  partly  made 
of  spaces  and  times,  nor  do  we  think  of  there  being  a 
^'  thing  "  called  space  or  time.  "  Sensation  "  does 
not  exist  in  any  other  manner  than  do  space  and  time. 
Physiology  has  analyzed  our  nervous  system  into 
various  parts,  and  has  called  some  sensory  and  others 
motor,  but  this  does  not  prove  that  we  have  different 
sorts  of  consciousness  corresponding  to  the  two  parts. 
Psychologically  we  do  not  get  sensation  existing  at 
one  moment  and  a  response  to  sensation  at  the  next 
moment.  What  we  get  is  an  act  in  which  a  sensory 
basis  and  a  motor  basis  are  equally  involved.     All 

80 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  81 

experience  has  a  sensory-motor  character,  and  the  two 
aspects  develop  together. 

Cutaneous  Sensation. — The  skin  as  an  end-organ 
is  peculiar  among  the  senses  in  having  so  much 
greater  surface  than  the  rest ;  it  is  approximately 
twenty-two  square  feet  in  extent.  It  is  peculiar  also 
in  forming  a  complete  outer  covering  for  the  body, 
There  is  some  ground  for  the  idea  that  the  dermal 
senses  are  especially  important  in  the  earliest  part  of 
life,  for  it  is  from  the  folds  of  this  outer  covering,  the 
ectoderm  in  the  embryo,  that  the  other  sense-organs 
and  the  whole  nervous  system  have  been  formed. 
There  is  an  amount  of  common  observation  which 
goes  to  show  that  men  put  more  trust  in  the  existence 
of  things  which  are  literally  tangible  to  them  than 
in  things  merely  seen  or  heard.  Dresslar  *'*'  has  gath- 
ered together  some  data  on  this  point,  and  cites, 
among  other  items,  the  curious  legal  fact  that  "  bare 
words  will  not  make  an  arrest,"  but  that  some  form 
of  actual  contact  is  necessary  to  complete  the  legal 
act  of  arrest. 

The  skin  gives  experience  of  pressure,  pain, 
warmth  and  cold,  as  well  as  cues  for  the  percep- 
tion of  spatial  relations.  Of  the  pressure  suscepti- 
bilities of  children  little  is  known  beyond  the  fact 
that  they  probably  are  delicate,  inasmuch  as  the  skin 
itself  is  fine  in  texture. 

Concerning  pain,  Preyer  writes  that  the  newly  born 


82  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

child  is  known  to  be  less  sensitive  to  pain  than  are 
adults.  Experiments  on  older  children,  however, 
show  them  to  be  more  sensitive  to  pain  than  adults. 
Gilbert's  ^^'^  researches  upon  boys  and  girls,  ranging 
in  age  from  six  to  nineteen,  show  that  the  pain 
threshold  is  lower  for  the  younger  children.  This 
sensitivity  decreases  with  the  girls  until  about  the 
age  of  thirteen,  and  with  the  boys  until  about 
fifteen.  The  threshold  was  lower  at  each  age  for 
the  girls. 

Of  temperature  Preyer  says  that  "  the  sensibility  of 
the  mucous  membrane  of  the  mouth,  of  the  tongue, 
of  the  lips  to  cold  and  warmth  ...  is  surpris- 
ingly great  in  infants  during  the  first  days." 
Exact  observations  on  the  comparative  tempera- 
ture discrimination  for  different  ages  seem  to  be 
lacking. 

The  so-called  space  threshold,  the  capacity  to  tell 
two  points  from  one  on  the  skin,  is  finer  with  chil- 
dren than  with  adults.  Wissler  "  even  found  that 
college  freshmen  decreased  in  this  type  of  sensitivity 
during  their  four  years  at  college.  Probably  the 
same  general  distribution  of  this  kind  of  sensitivity 
over  the  different  parts  of  the  body  holds  good  for 
children  as  for  adults.  This  distribution  is  ex- 
pressed in  Vierordt's  formula — that  the  more  mobile 
parts  are  the  more  sensitive,  i.e.,  a  given  area  of 
skin  is  sensitive  in  proportion  to  its  distance  from 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  83 

the  central  axis  of  rotation  of  the  member  to  which 
it  belongs.  The  child's  greater  sensitivity  to  skin 
experiences  is  striking  as  an  exception  to  the  general 
course  of  development  of  sense  discriminations.  A 
partial  explanation  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  total  area 
of  the  child's  skin  is  much  smaller  than  the  adult's, 
whereas  the  number  of  nerve  endings  is,  in  all  likeli- 
hood, the  same.  The  same  number  of  nerve  endings 
is  condensed  into  less  space.  Whipple  also  remarks 
that  the  delicate  texture  of  the  child's  skin  is  an- 
other reason  for  its  greater  sensitivity. 

Two  pieces  of  evidence  from  adult  psychology  sug- 
gest that  skin  discrimination  is  capable  of  great 
variation  under  special  conditions  or  under  train- 
ing. Henri  ''■  quotes  a  case  in  which  a  woman,  while 
hysterical,  could  discriminate  with  surprising  clear- 
ness the  designs  on  a  medal  or  coin  when  the  object 
was  laid  on  the  skin  at  the  back  of  her  neck — a  feat 
which  is  far  beyond  the  capacity  of  a  normal  subject. 
The  other  reference  is  to  the  work  of  Dresslar  ^°  in 
training  two  subjects  on  the  two-point  threshold  for 
a  period  of  four  weeks.  An  area  on  the  forearm  was 
tested.  The  average  distance  at  which  the  two  points 
were  distinguished  during  the  first  week  was  18  mm. 
and  21  mm.,  respectively,  for  the  two  subjects.  The 
averages  for  the  fourth  week  were  4.1  mm,  and  2.8 
mm.,  respectively.  This  very  astonishing  improve- 
ment, however,  was  short-lived ;  for  as  soon  as  the 


84  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

training  stopped  the  thresholds  began  to  increase 
again,  and  within  a  few  weeks  were  practically  where 
they  had  been  at  the  beginning.  Further,  and  much 
more  extended  observations  are  needed  before  any 
educational  measures  could  be  guided  by  such  results, 
but  these  points  do,  at  least,  prompt  some  reflections 
as  to  the  probability  of  any  lasting  benefit  from  early 
tactile  training. 

Sensations  from  Muscles,  Joints,  and  Tendons. — 
Studies  have  been  made  on  children  to  test  their 
power  of  discrimination  between  lifted  weights.  Gil- 
bert ^^^  reports  that  the  six-year-old  child  will  confuse 
weights  which  differ  by  as  much  as  18  grams,  when 
the  absolute  weights  compared  are  82  and  100  grams. 
By  the  age  of  thirteen  the  child  can  distinguish  a 
difference  of  6  grams.  Boys  are  superior  to  girls  in 
this  capacity.  The  perception  of  form  through  active 
touch  depends  in  large  part  upon  cues  from  the  joints, 
tendons,  and  muscles.  Meumann  ^^  fitted  the  hand 
into  a  stiff  glove,  so  shutting  off  finger  movements 
and  touch  sensations.  He  then  found  that,  by  pass- 
ing the  hand  over  an  object  so  that  the  wrist  move- 
ments come  into  play,  a  very  effective  idea  of  the 
shape  of  the  object  can  be  secured.  He  does  not 
quote  comparative  results  on  children  in  this  par- 
ticular. He  does  observe  that  the  estimation  of  space 
intervals  by  movement  seems,  in  children,  to  be  finer 
with  the  large  joints  than  Avith  the  smaller  ones; 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  85 

whereas  with  adults  he  supposes  the  reverse  to  be  the 
fact. 

Taste  and  Smell. — Very  little  of  a  systematic 
sort  is  known  about  the  gustatory  and  olfactory  sen- 
sations of  children.  Preyer  thinks  that  smell  is  prob- 
ably present  from  the  time  of  birth.  Taste,  he  says, 
is  the  best  developed  of  all  the  senses  at  the  time  of 
birth.  The  end-organs  for  taste, — the  taste-buds, — 
are  distributed  more  widely  in  the  buccal  cavity  in 
children  than  they  are  in  adults.  In  the  latter  the 
taste-buds  are  usually  limited  to  the  tip,  the  edges, 
and  the  back  of  the  tongue,  and  to  the  soft  palate. 
In  children  they  occur  all  over  the  surface  of  the 
tongue,  in  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  cheeks,  the 
soft  palate,  and  the  uvula. 

Auditory  Sensations. — Children  are  deaf  at  birth, 
because  of  the  amniotic  fluid  in  the  ears,  but  some- 
times within  a  few  hours,  and  usually  within  a  few 
days,  a  normal  child  responds  to  noises.  Meumann 
gives  it  as  the  fifth  month,  Shinn  ^^  as  the  ninth 
month,  when  an  interest  in  auditory  differences  mani- 
fests itself.  An  apparent  enjoyment  of  music  some- 
times appears  in  the  first  year,  and  there  are  several 
cases  on  record  of  children  who  have  been  able  to 
reproduce  melodies  accurately  at  about  the  end  of  the 
first  year.  Preyer  gives  three  cases,  and  adds  that 
these  children  could  sing  before  they  could  talk. 
Bnrnham  mentions  a  child  of  nine  months  who  could 


86  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

sing  notes.  Heilig  ''^  reports  a  girl  of  thirteen  months 
who  could  sing  part  of  the  scale.  There  are  very 
great  individual  differences  in  this  respect.  Meu- 
mann  says  that  the  statistics  of  the  Annaberger 
schools  show  that  only  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  children 
when  they  enter  can  sing  a  song  from  memory,  and 
about  thirty-six  per  cent,  can  reproduce  what  is  sung 
to  them. 

Experimental  work  on  children  has  been  directed 
chiefly  upon  the  detection  of  ear  defects.  Whipple 
criticises  the  loose  nature  of  the  tests  employed  to 
determine  deafness,  but  gives  as  the  percentage  of 
individuals  who  "  would  be  seriously  inconvenienced 
in  detecting  sounds  of  medium  intensity  "  (on  the 
basis  of  Smedley's  results)  seven  per  cent,  as  defective 
in  both  ears,  and  ten  per  cent,  as  defective  in  one  ear, 
i.e.,  seventeen  per  cent,  as  defective  in  one  or  both 
ears.  The  kind  of  sound  which  gave  this  propor- 
tion of  deafness  was  the  click  of  a  telephone  receiver. 
Other  tests  are  also  used  in  which  whispered  words 
are  given  as  stimuli.  Both  these  procedures  are 
called  tests  of  auditory  acuity,  or  of  the  threshold 
for  the  perception  of  sound.  This  acuity  is  said 
by  Seashore  ^"^^  to  improve  up  to  the  age  of 
twelve. 

Another  type  of  experiment  requires  the  subject 
to  tell  the  difference  between  two  tones,  sounded,  for 
example,  on  the  tuning-forks.    This  is  the  question  of 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  87 

pitch  discrimination.  According  to  figures  given  bj 
Gilbert,  pitch  discrimination  improves  from  the 
age  of  six  up  to  nineteen,  the  improvement  being 
rapid  up  to  about  the  age  of  nine,  and  slow  there- 
after. This  result  is  called  in  question  by  Seashore, 
who  says  that,  in  a  bright  child  with  a  good  ear,  the 
physiological  limit  for  pitch  discrimination  can  be 
established  for  practical  purposes  as  early  as  the  age 
of  five.  Seashore  ^^'^  studied  pitch  discrimination  also 
with  a  standard  fork  of  435  vibrations,  which  was 
compared  by  his  subjects  with  forks  differing  by  1, 
2,  3,  5,  8,  12,  and  17  vibrations.  He  offers  the  fol- 
lowing tentative  suggestion  as  a  result  of  the  applica- 
tion of  this  test :  ''  A  child  whose  threshold  is  2  or 
under  (the  numbers  denote  the  fiftieths  of  a  tone) 
may  become  a  musician ;  3-8  should  have  a  plain 
musical  education  (singing  in  school  should  be 
obligatory)  ;  9-17  should  have  a  plain  musical  edu- 
cation only  if  some  special  inclination  for  some  kind 
of  music  is  shown  (singing  in  school  should  be 
optional)  ;  18  or  above  should  have  nothing  to  do 
with  music."  Tn  a  later  publication,  Smith,''^  who 
worked  with  Seashore  on  the  effect  of  training  in 
pitch  discrimination,  says  that  the  sensitivity  of  the 
ear  to  pitch  differences  cannot  be  improved  appreci- 
ably by  practice.  Changes  which  seem  to  be  due  to 
practice  in  discrimination  are  often  the  result  of  the 
subject's    improved    concentration    and    familiarity 


88  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

with  the  test  conditions,  rather  than  the  result  of 
actual  change  in  sensitivity. 

Visual  Sensations. — A  number  of  investigations 
have  been  undertaken  with  very  young  children  to 
determine  the  age  at  which  color  sensitivity  begins. 
Early  writers,  like  Preyer,  have  depended  upon  the 
child's  ability  to  name  the  color  pointed  at,  or  to 
point  at  the  color  named,  as  an  index  of  his  capacity 
to  discriminate.  While  there  are  obvious  objections 
to  accepting  this  as  a  sign  of  the  child's  sensory 
development,  yet  it  is  an  item  of  some  interest  in 
itself  to  know  at  what  age  children  may  be  expected 
to  name  colors  correctly.  Meumann  quotes  the  find- 
ings of  the  Munich  schools  to  the  effect  that,  of  the 
six-year-olds,  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  twenty- 
eight  per  cent,  of  the  girls  who  were  examined  could 
not  name  the  four  primary  colors  correctly.  Prac- 
tically all  could  name  black  and  white.  The  fre- 
quency of  correct  naming  of  the  various  colors  is 
given  as  greatest  for  black,  then  white,  red,  blue, 
green,  yellow,  brown,  gray,  rose,  violet,  orange. 

Baldwin  ^^  devised  a  method  for  testing  the  child's 
response  to  color  which  can  be  used  at  a  much  earlier 
age,  namely,  the  "  dynamogenic,"  or  reaching  and 
grasping  method.  Colors  were  placed  in  front  of  the 
child,  one  color  at  a  time,  at  a  measured  distance. 
The  distances  were  then  varied,  and  the  greater  the 
space  over  which  the  child  would  reach  to  grasp  the 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  89 

color,  the  greater  was  her  preference  for  that  color 
assumed  to  be.  The  child  was  nine  months  old,  and 
the  results  showed  the  preference  for  the  colors  used 
to  be  in  the  order:  blue,  red,  white,  green,  brown. 
Woolley  ^"  modified  this  method  by  presenting  the 
colors  in  pairs,  and  noting  which  one  of  the  pair  was 
grasped.  She  found  that  her  child  showed  a  liking  for 
red  in  the  sixth  month,  and,  by  the  following  month, 
had  distinguished  red,  blue,  and  yellow.  All  the 
colors  were  preferred  to  the  white,  gray,  and  black. 
Of  the  colorless  group,  black  was  liked  best,  then 
gray,  then  white.  Yet  another  method  was  tried  by 
Valentine  ^°  on  a  three-months-old  child.  He  found 
this  child  too  young  for  the  grasping  method,  so  he 
measured  the  length  of  time  during  which  the  child 
gazed  at  one  or  the  other  of  two  colored  wools  which 
were  held  before  him.  Valentine's  colors,  he  says, 
were  very  nearly  equal  in  brightness,  and  his  con- 
clusion is  that  there  is  good  evidence  that  at  the 
age  of  three  months  an  infant  may  experience  the 
sensations  of  red,  yellow,  brown,  green,  and  blue. 
This  seems  to  be  the  earliest  period  to  which  color 
sensitivity  has  been  ascribed,  though  the  child's  eye 
is  sensitive  to  differences  of  light  and  shade  on  the 
first  day  of  life. 

Tests  on  the  discrimination  of  color  saturation  were 
performed  by  Jones  "  on  children  of  from  five  to 
fourteen  years  of  age.     He  found  a  steady  improve- 


90  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

merit  in  this  capacity  during  this  entire  period. 
Tucker  "^  tested  children  from  five  to  ten  years  old, 
first  using  the  Holmgren  wools  for  discrimination  of 
hues.  She  writes :  "  Only  three  of  the  ten-year-old 
girls  made  any  mistakes  at  all  with  the  wools,  and 
then  it  was  simply  to  put  blue  wools  with  the  violet 
test  wool,  a  mistake  which  became  universal  among 
the  younger  children,  and  one  which  is  made  by  all 
primitive  peoples."  With  the  tintometer  she  also 
tested  thresholds  for  red,  yellow  and  blue,  and  found 
a  progressive  lowering  of  the  threshold  going  from 
the  younger  to  the  older  children.  Most  investiga- 
tors find  that  the  color  perception  of  girls  is  some- 
what superior  to  that  of  boys,  and  that  the  per- 
centage of  color-blindness  is  about  four  per  cent, 
for  boys,  but  only  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  for 
girls. 

Visual  acuity,  or  the  capacity  to  distinguish  ad- 
jacent impressions  on  the  retina,  is  most  commonly 
tested  by  the  reading  of  letters  at  given  distances. 
Thus,  on  the  well-known  Snellen  chart,  the  normal 
eye  is  supposed  to  read  letters  with  a  maximum  di- 
ameter of  15  mm.  at  a  distance  of  9  meters.  Ac- 
cording to  such  tests,  the  percentage  of  eye-defect 
among  school  children  is  as  high  as  thirty. 

The  range  of  color  vision  on  the  peripheral  retina 
in  children  has  been  the  subject  of  investigation  by 
Luckey.^^    He  examined  seven-year-old  and  thirteen- 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  91 

vear-old  child roii,  and  two  groups  of  adults,  one  of 
these  groups  being  trained  and  the  other  untrained  in 
artistic  work  with  color.  lie  plotted  the  visual  fields 
of  all  the  subjects  for  blue,  yellow,  red  and  green, 
and  for  light  and  dark.  His  results  show  that  the 
whole  visual  field  for  children  is  more  restricted  than 
it  is  for  adults,  and  that  the  effect  is  yet  more  marked 
for  colors  than  for  black  and  white.  Thus,  in  the 
case  of  the  seven-year-old  children,  the  ratio  of  the 
whole  visual  field  to  that  of  the  adults  was  about 
as  78  is  to  100,  whereas,  the  ratio  of  the  color  field 
was  about  as  61  to  100.  The  ranges  for  the  thirteen- 
year-old  group  stand  nearly  midway  between  the 
figures  for  the  younger  children  and  the  adults. 
Luckey  found  no  appreciable  differences  between 
boys  and  girls,  and  no  significant'differences  between 
the  trained  and  the  untrained  adults. 

Perception  of  Space. — Whatever  our  theories  as 
to  the  origin  of  space  ideas,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  vast  and  varied  array  of  motor  experiences 
which  the  child  is  constantly  acquiring  does  much 
toward  developing  and  clarifying  those  ideas.  Our 
ability  to  estimate  spatial  extent  is  largely  dependent 
upon  the  experience  of  traversing  it,  or  moving  some 
part  of  the  body  over  it.  The  spatial  knowledge  of 
the  very  young  child  is  at  first  limited  to  the  dis- 
tance that  he  can  reach.  A  frequent  mistake  is  to 
grasp    for    things    beyond    that    reach.     When    he 


92  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

begins  to  creep  and  walk,  he  learns  to  correct 
his  estimate  of  the  distance  of  objects  by  traveling 
to  them. 

Gilbert  asked  children,  ranging  in  age  from  six  to 
nineteen,  to  estimate  in  inches  the  length  of  a  given 
line.  The  line  was  50.8  inches  in  actual  length.  The 
six-year-olds  gave  an  average  estimate  of  only  10.7 
inches,  while  the  general  course  of  the  judgments 
may  be  summarized  in  the  statement  that,  up  to  the 
age  of  fifteen,  children  judged  the  distance  to  be 
shorter  than  it  actually  was,  but  after  that  age  they 
judged  it  to  be  longer  than  it  was.  The  most  accurate 
age  w^as  between  fifteen  and  sixteen.  Another  of 
Gilbert's  tests  required  children  to  estimate  length 
by  arm  movement.  The  subject  was  allowed  to  look 
at  a  line  50.8  inches  long,  and  then,  with  eyes  closed, 
he  was  asked  to  move  his  arm  over  an  equal  distance. 
The  results  show  that  the  mean  error  for  the  dif- 
ferent ages  decreases  from  10.9  inches  with  six-year- 
old  boys  to  1.3  inches  for  nineteen-year-old  boys ;  and 
from  8.9  inches  with  six-year-old  girls  to  1.3  inches 
for  nineteen-year-old  girls. 

Some  of  the  illusions  of  space  perception  have  been 
studied  with  children,  but  the  results  are  not  wholly 
unequivocal.  Binet^^''  showed  the  Miiller-Lyer  figures 
to  two  groups  of  children,  aged  nine  and  twelve.  He 
concludes  that  the  younger  children  are  more  sus- 
ceptible to  the  illusory  effect  than  the  older  ones. 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  93 

and  that  this  is  due  to  the  greater  care  of  the  older 
group  in  making  their  judgments.  The  younger  ones 
made  up  their  minds  at  a  glance,  but  the  older  made 
comparisons,  and  looked  back  and  forth  along  the 
lines  of  the  figures  several  times.  Rivers  ^^  also  finds 
that  this  illusion  is  slightly  greater  with  children 
than  with  adults.  White/"  however,  compared  the 
effect  of  a  variety  of  forms  of  the  illusion  upon  adults 
and  upon  children  of  six  to  fifteen,  and  finds  that  her 
tables  do  not  show  significant  differences.  I  found 
no  appreciable  difference  between  a  group  of  young 
women  twenty-two  years  old  and  a  group  of  children 
of  twelve  years  in  respect  to  this  illusion. 

Observations  have  also  been  made  on  the  vertical- 
horizontal  illusion  with  children.  Winch  ^^^  says  that 
it  decreases  with  age,  and  with  the  child's  progress  in 
school.  Some  of  Rivers'  tables  show  a  complete  ab- 
sence of  the  illusion  for  the  children  whom  he  cites. 
In  connection  with  this  illusion  and  the  preceding 
one  Seashore  ^^''  makes  the  following  statement : 
"  The  illusions  of  the  vertical  and  the  Miiller-Lyer 
illusion  do  not  vary  in  a  marked  manner  with  mental 
development ;  but  the  illusions  of  judgment,  e.g.,  the 
illusions  of  contrast  and  illusions  of  time,  vary  very 
much  with  mental  development." 

Another  illusion  into  which  spatial  experience 
enters  shows  some  specially  interesting  variations. 
This  is  the  size-weight  illusion.    Dresslar,'''^  who  tried 


94.  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

this  test  on  groups  of  children  seven  to  fourteen  years 
old,  does  not  report  characteristic  differences  for  the 
various  ages,  but  he  does  find  the  illusion  to  be  more 
consistently  present  with  bright  than  with  dull  chil- 
dren. Gilbert,  on  the  other  hand,  finds  that,  as  be- 
tween the  ages  of  six  and  seventeen,  the  illusion  is 
fairly  strong  at  six,  then  becomes  even  more  marked 
up  to  nine,  and  from  nine  on  gradually  lessens.  This 
illusion  would  seem  to  require  as  a  precondition  a 
certain  amount  of  experience  in  associating  sizes 
of  objects  with  their  weights.  One  usually  expects 
that  large  things  will  be  found  heavy.  We  may  sup- 
pose that  from  the  age  of  six  to  nine  this  illusion 
increases  because  this  background  of  experience  is 
becoming  more  firmly  established.  But  from  the  age 
of  nine  on  an  analysis  of  the  weight  experience  and, 
an  amount  of  correction  are  present. 

Those  who  study  children's  drawings,  and  chil- 
dren's interests  in  pictures,  have  noticed  that  the 
appreciation  of  form  or  shape  precedes  the  recognition 
of  position  or  the  correct  orientation  of  an  object. 
Thus  Ruttmann^^  says  that  for  a  long  time  it  is 
immaterial  to  a  child  in  what  j^osition  the  picture  in 
front  of  him  stands.  He  seems  to  enjoy  it  either 
side  up  equally  well.  A  parallel  to  this  is  found  in 
adult  experience  under  special  conditions.  Moore  ^" 
has  shown,  in  his  study  of  abstraction,  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  perceive  and   remember  a   shape   correctly, 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  95 

without  being  able  to  tell  whether  it  was  right  side  up 

or  not. 

Perception  of  Time  and  Rhythm, — Children's 
ideas  of  time  and  their  capacity  to  estimate  it  arc 
relatively  late  acquisitions.  According  to  Ziehen,'^ 
children  from  eight  to  ten  years  of  age  have  very 
vague  notions  of  long  intervals  like  years  and  months. 
The  capacity  for  estimating  small  intervals  of  time 
has  been  studied  by  Ilornibrook.'^*  She  held  a  white 
stimulus  card  before  the  subject  for  a  definite  length 
of  time,  and  then  asked  the  child  to  expose  a  similar 
card  for  an  equal  interval.  The  intervals  which  she 
chose  were  5,  10,  20,  and  30  seconds.  The  estimates 
of  the  children  were  as  a  rule  far  too  short,  as  Table 


TABLE 

XI 

Age 

no. 

5  sec. 

d 

10  sec 

.  d 

20  sec. 

d 

.30  sec. 

d 

(judged  as 

) 

6    ... 

.     19 

5 

2 

6 

2 

10 

4 

9 

6 

7  ... 

,  .     19 

4 

1 

6 

2 

10 

4 

10 

5 

8  ... 

,  .     23 

4 

1 

7 

2 

14 

5 

13 

7 

9   .., 

,  .     16 

4 

2 

8 

3 

13 

4 

12 

4 

10   ... 

,  .     15 

5 

2 

8 

2 

15 

4 

17 

6 

11   ... 

.  .     23 

5 

2 

8 

2 

18 

4 

16 

6 

12   .., 

.  .     20 

5 

1 

8 

2 

14 

3 

13 

4 

13   .. 

.  .     20 

5 

1 

9 

2 

16 

3 

13 

3 

14   .. 

.  .     19 

5 

1 

8 

2 

15 

3 

12 

4 

15   .. 

.  .     13 

4 

1 

9 

1 

17 

4 

18 

6 

XI  shows.     The  estimates  for  thirty  seconds  were 
free,  i.e.,  without  the  use  of  the  exposure  card. 
Allied  to  the  ability  to  estimate  time  is  the  feeling 


96  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

for  rhythm.  Meumann  reports  that  the  ability  to 
follow  a  given  rhythm  by  tapping  in  unison  with  it  is 
a  difficult  procedure  for  young  children.  Some  sort 
of  response  to  rhythm,  however,  certainly  appears 
very  early  in  the  child's  life.  Sears,^^  in  his  work 
on  rhythm,  undertook  to  get  questionnaire  records, 
as  well  as  direct  experimental  evidence,  on  the  de- 
velopment of  rhythmic  capacity  in  children.  To  the 
question,  how  early  in  life  do  children  begin  to  be 
interested  in  music  with  a  marked  rhythm,  trying 
to  dance  or  keep  time  with  it,  his  returns  indicate 
that  such  responses  have  been  noticed  in  children  six 
months  old,  but  that  the  average  age  is  about  eighteen 
months  for  boys  and  seventeen  for  girls.  Sears 
says  also  that  there  is  a  decided  preference  for 
duple  over  triple  time,  and  that  little  children  have 
a  fondness  for  rhythms  which  are  lively  and  fast. 
This  early  preference  for  march  time  gives  place  at 
an  average  age  of  eleven  or  twelve  years  to  the  prefer- 
ence for  waltz  time.  One  further  point  has  a  peda- 
gogic bearing,  viz.,  that  according  to  the  majority  of 
replies,  young  children  may  learn  to  dance  in  good 
rhythm  as  early  as  three  or  four  years. 

In  the  experimental  part  of  Sears's  work,  children 
were  directed  to  reproduce,  by  tapping  with  a  pencil, 
a  series  of  seven  different  rhythms,  which  the  experi- 
menter tapped  for  them.  The  first  and  simplest  of 
these  rhythms  has  two  quarter  notes  and  a  quarter 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  97 

rest  to  the  measure,  the  most  complex  has  two  quar- 
ters, four  sixteenths,  and  one  quarter  note  to  the 
measure.  A  few  children  were  unable  to  tap  any  of 
the  rhythms.  Out  of  about  thirteen  hundred  chil- 
dren there  were  three  boys  and  six  girls,  all  of  them 
under  seven,  who  could  not  do  any.  For  the  rest 
..."  Increase  in  ability  to  express  rhythm  by 
tapping  movements  seems  to  be  rapid  up  to  nine  or 
ten  years.  After  this  age  progress  is  slower  up  to 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years,  after  which  there  is  possibly 
a  falling  away  in  skill.  .  .  .  Those  having  had  spe- 
cial training  in  music  were  more  successful  in  the 
execution  of  the  tests.  ...  A  comparison  of  rhythmic 
ability  and  rank  in  school  work  leads  to  the  con- 
clusion that  good  ability  in  executing  rhythms  and 
intellectual  aptness  are  more  frequently  associated 
than  otherwise." 

The  early  development  of  rhythmic  interest,  the 
fact  that  it  can  be  expressed  through  the  fundamental 
muscles,  and  the  fact  that  it  offers  great  opportuni- 
ties for  training  in  mental  and  physical  co-ordination, 
mark  it  out  as  a  peculiarly  fit  medium  for  work  with 
young  children.  The  method  of  Jaques  Dalcroze  and 
his  school  shows  through  how, systematic  and  varied 
a  program  the  exercises  in  rhythm  may  be  carried, — 
and  Avith  what  happy  effect. 

Pedagogical  Corollaries. — In  the  preceding  pages 
a  number  of  specific  items  have  been  cited  regarding 


98  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  sensory  capacities  of  children.  It  is  time  to  ask 
what  influence  any  of  these  facts  may  have  in  de- 
ciding questions  of  school  practice.  First  let  us 
inquire :  is  it  necessary  or  advisable  to  have,  in 
schools  or  kindergartens,  formal  exercises  in  sense- 
training  ?  It  will  be  recalled  that  Groos,  in  enumerat- 
ing the  forms  of  play,  speaks  of  the  experimental 
exercise  of  the  senses  as  one  of  the  spontaneous  inter- 
ests of  childhood.  Many  of  the  present  practices  in 
kindergartens,  both  of  the  Froebel  and  the  Montessori 
type,  involve  close  attention  to  sensory  discrimina- 
tions. For  example,  the  game  of  Silence,  in  which 
the  children  sit  with  closed  eyes  waiting  while  the 
teacher  wdiispers  the  name  of  each,  and  each  responds 
by  tiptoeing  up  to  her,  is  a  rough  form  of  the  auditory 
acuity  test.  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  in  the  form  of 
games,  and  for  short  periods  of  time,  sense-training 
is  a  proper  exercise  for  kindergarten  children.  In 
the  grades,  however,  the  regular  work  in  music,  paint- 
ing, and  manual  arts  gives  much  incidental  exercise 
of  the  senses.  Moreover,  there  is  evidence  to  show 
that  sensory  capacity  will  develop  in  relative  inde- 
pendence of  any  conscious  training.  This  develop- 
ment is  instinctive  in  the  sense  that  the  child  seems 
spontaneously  to  find  occasions  for  the  use  of  his 
powers.  It  would  probably,  therefore,  be  superfluous 
to  set  apart  any  regular  hour  in  the  curriculum  of 
the  grades  for  formal  work  in  sense  discrimination. 


SENSORY  CAPACITIES  99 

In  considering  the  application  of  the  psychology 
of  the  senses  to  pedagogic  problems  we  ought  to  keep 
in  mind  the  two  distinct  functions  of  sense-training 
and  sense-testing.  Whatever  the  decision  as  to  the 
need  for  sense-training,  there  can  be  little  doubt  of 
the  need  for  testing  children's  sensory  capacities.  A 
few  such  tests  are  included  in  any  regular  medical 
examination,  but  a  more  complete  psychological 
examination  ought  to  bring  to  light  many  significant 
individual  differences  among  school  children.  These 
examinations  ought  to  be  a  part  of  the  regular  school 
regime.  In  Seinig's  school  in  Charlottenburg  every 
boy  knows  the  focal  distance  of  his  own  eyes,  and  he 
is  seated  accordingly  in  the  classroom.  The  teacher 
who  knows  that  a  certain  child  is  deaf  in  one  ear 
can  make  a  similar  provision  for  that  fact.  An 
important  point  to  realize  is  that  the  child  himself 
cannot  be  relied  upon  to  give  notice  of  his  sensory 
incapacity,  since  he  frequently  does  not  realize  it. 
Whipple  writes :  "  Defective  hearing,  like  defective 
vision,  may  exist  in  serious  degree  and  yet  pass  un- 
noticed by  child,  teacher,  parents,  or  friends.  Of  the 
thirteen  per  cent,  found  defective  by  Sexton,  only 
three  per  cent,  were  themselves  aware  of  any  defect, 
and  only  one  of  them  was  known  to  be  deaf  by  his 
teachers."  This  is  comprehensible  when  we  remem- 
ber that  the  defective  child  has,  in  many  cases,  never 
known  what  it  is  to  see  or  hear  normally.     The  in- 


100  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

cident  is  told  about  a  little  girl  who  was  deaf  from 
birth,  that  she  learned  to  communicate  with  others 
by  lip  movements,  and  never  realized  that  there  was 
anything  more  to  language  than  that,  until  one  day 
she  noticed  that  other  people  could  talk  to  one  an- 
other without  looking.  Children  are  often  credited 
with  dullness  or  inattention  when  the  real  trouble  is 
a  sense-defect  which  they  are  too  timid  or  too  inex- 
perienced to  report. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 

General  Characteristics  of  Children's  Movements. 

— Children's  movements  are,  on  the  whole,  irregular 
and  uncertain  as  compared  with  adult  movements.  A 
stimulus,  instead  of  starting  some  definite  and  appro- 
priate reaction,  often  appears  to  overflow  into  the 
organism  in  all  its  parts,  just  creating  a  vague  com- 
motion. This  is  sometimes  called  the  law  of  diffuse 
discharge.  It  does  not  mean  that  the  movement  so 
started  is  entirely  indefinite  or  non-specific  in  its  re- 
sult, but  it  does  mean  that  there  is  an  amount  of 
response  at  large,  which  will  be  irrelevant,  and  that 
the  appropriate  element  is  helplessly  afloat  in  these 
irrelevancies.  I  watched  a  child,  four  months  old, 
trying  to  get  her  bottle  of  milk.  It  was  held  before 
her  within  reach  of  her  arms.  As  soon  as  her  eyes 
had  fixated  it  her  whole  body  began  to  squirm  with 
animation,  her  arms  shot  out  and  began  to  wave  up 
and  down  at  the  sides  of  her  body,  but  she  could  not 
get  the  bottle.  The  eye-hand  co-ordination  had  not 
yet  been  isolated,  and  she  could  not  converge  her 
hands  upon  the  source  of  the  optical  stimulus.       The 

101 


102  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

folloAving  passage  from  Major's  ^°  notes  on  his  son 
gives  much  the  same  picture :  "  A  watch  was  held 
about  seven  inches  from  his  chest  and  about  eight 
inches  from  his  eyes.  At  first  he  lay  very  still,  not  a 
muscle  stirring,  gazing.  Then  he  began  to  kick 
rapidly,  and  one  arm  flew  up  and  chanced  to  strike 
the  watch.  ...  It  seemed  as  if  the  sight  of  the  bright 
object  set  the  kicking  and  arm-throwing  muscles  in 
motion."  Even  an  older  child,  say  a  boy  learning 
to  write,  illustrates  this  stage  of  diffuse  discharge. 
He  will  grasp  the  pencil  not  only  with  his  hand  but 
with  his  whole  soul,  and  will  employ  his  lips,  his 
tongue,  his  feet,  and  everything  that  is  his  in  order 
to  bring  the  letters  to  pass.  The  amount  of  energy 
put  forth  by  unskilled  persons  in  the  first  effort  to  do 
any  complex  thing  is  greater  than  the  energy  which 
will  later  suffice.  This  "  superfluous  energy  "  may 
not  be  in  reality  superfluous  as  an  initial  stage,  but 
it  will  diminish  in  time,  because  the  effect  of  repeti- 
tion is  to  lessen  the  amount  of  energy  necessary  to 
the  act,  and  because  one  learns  to  drop  off  the  ir- 
relevant parts. 

A  special  form  of  the  law  of  diffusion  is  the  law  of 
symmetry,  or  the  simultaneous  innervation  of  sym- 
metrical parts  of  the  body.  If  a  young  child's  foot  is 
tickled,  both  feet  are  likely  to  make  responsive  move- 
ments. The  arms  also  tend  to  move  at  the  same  time 
and  in  similar  ways  when  one  of  them  is  stimulated. 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  103 

The  hands  and  the  fingers  obey  the  same  impulse.  It 
is  a  distinct  advance  when  the  paired  movements 
break  up  and  the  two  hands,  for  instance,  either  work 
successively  or  do  different  things  at  the  same  time. 
Oddly  enough  the  eyes,  which  later  function  sym- 
metrically, are  often  actuated  independently  during 
the  earliest  weeks.  This  would  seem  to  be  an  excep- 
tion to  the  general  observation  on  paired  movements. 

The  last  stage  in  the  development  of  a  movement 
sees  the  disappearance  of  the  irrelevant  parts  and  the 
reduction  of  it  to  a  facile  and  isolated  act.  Ob- 
jectively, then,  the  new  act  passes  through  successive 
phases  of  narrowing  down.  From  the  first  wholesale 
agitation  of  the  body,  through  a  smaller  block  of  re- 
actions, like  the  symmetrical  ones,  to  its  final  specific 
form,  there  is  a  progressive  elimination  of  the  non- 
essentials. The  details  of  this  process,  and  the  sub- 
jective side  of  this  process  of  winning  vcduntary 
control  of  an  act,  will  occupy  us  presently. 

Inhibition  in  Children. — The  inhibitive  power  of 
children  is  notoriously  weak.  Hancock  *^  tested  the 
ability  of  children  to  stand  still  by  meas.uring  those 
swaying  movements  which  every  one  makes  in  some 
degree  when  standing  erect.  The  excursion  of  these 
movements  proved  to  be  much  greater  in  the  children 
whom  he  tested  than  in  the  adults.  Curtis  ''^  similarly 
reports  upon  the  ability  of  children  to  sit  still.  He 
observes:   "Children  under  five  could   not  sit  still 


104  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

longer  than  thirty  seconds  in  the  test.  Children 
under  ten  could  not  sit  still  longer  than  one  and  a 
half  minutes."  It  is  possible  for  a  child  to  become 
enough  absorbed  in  some  occupation  to  keep  still 
rather  longer  than  this,  but  a  deliberate  sitting  still, 
just  because  he  is  told  to  do  it,  is  well-nigh  impos- 
sible for  the  ordinary  child.  This  is  not  surprising 
when  we  stop  to  think  what  inhibition  really  means. 
It  is  not  merely  a  negative  thing;  it  is  a  positive 
checking  of  something  which  has  got  a  start.  More- 
over there  is  method  in  this  checking:  you  do  not 
stop  by  just  stopping ;  you  do  it  by  launching  a  con- 
trary impulse.  Hence  a  general  power  of  inhibition 
means  that  a  general  system  of  balances  and  checks 
has  been  established. 

The  school  should  take  account  of  the  child's  lack 
of  inhibition,  both  in  its  methods  and  in  its  equip- 
ment. The  teacher  who  expects  to  hold  a  child  to  a 
given  task  for  half  an  hour  or  more  ought  to  make 
occasion  for  changes  of  posture  and  for  freedom  of 
movement.  This  can  be  done  by  blackboard  work  and 
by  the  use  of  games.  School  desks  and  seats  should 
be  so  isolated  that  the  motions  of  one  child  do  not 
disturb  another.  Double  seats  and  seats  which 
have  the  desk  attachment  on  the  back  for  the 
next  seat  behind  are,  for  this  reason,  not  satis- 
factory. 

The  total  sum  of  movements  which  a  child  per- 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  105 

forms  during  a  day  is  said  to  be  far  greater  than  that 
which  an  adult  commonly  goes  through.  Of  course 
the  child  is  not  capable  of  the  sustained  effort  of  the 
adult,  cannot  effect  so  much  with  his  muscles  at  one 
stroke,  and  is  not  capable  of  all  those  inhibitions 
which  take  their  toll  of  nervous  and  muscular  energy 
even  when  they  do  not  show  as  overt  action.  Yet 
Curtis,^"  who  studied  the  matter  by  affixing  pedom- 
eters to  his  subjects,  concludes  that,  "  The  activity 
of  children  below  six,  as  shown  by  pedometer  records, 
is  greater  than  at  any  later  period."  It  is  from  this 
wealth  of  early  activity  that  certain  responses  are 
selected,  improved,  and  confirmed  into  the  forms  of 
adult  conduct. 

Movement  and  Its  Idea. — It  was  pointed  out  by 
James  that  a  voluntary  act  is  never  a  completely 
fresh  experience;  for,  in  order  to  will  a  thing,  you 
must  know  what  it  is  that  you  are  willing.  You 
must  at  some  time  have  had  an  involuntary  experi- 
ence of  the  movement,  must  have  done  it  by  accident, 
or  instinctively,  or  have  been  put  through  it  by  some 
other  person.  It  is  possible,  however,  to  experiment 
for  new  movements  and  to  will  new  combinations  of 
old  ones.  Now,  suppose  we  wish  to  give  a  subject 
the  cue  to  some  new  process.  If  no  amount  of  pure 
willing  on  his  part  can  give  him  the  hang  of  it, 
how  is  he  to  get  the  feeling  of  it  into  consciousness  ? 
In  order  to  answer  this  question  let  us  consider  sev- 


106  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

eral  illustrations  of  the  learning  process,  or  types  of 
learning. 

Trial  and  Error. — If  a  child  is  in  the  presence  of 
an  irritating  object,  like  a  parent  who  is  punishing 
him,  an  object  which  he  finds  it  hard  to  get  rid  of,  he 
is  likely  to  do  any  or  all  of  these  things:  to  strike, 
scratch,  kick,  bite,  scream,  twist,  weep,  and  implore. 
He  hurls  his  whole  arsenal  of  weapons  against  the 
offender,  hoping  that  something  will  work.  It  is  the 
situation  of  diffuse  discharge  once  more.  Not  know- 
ing the  right  thing  to  do,  he  tries  everything  he  does 
know.  This  keeping  at  it  with  one's  entire  repertory 
of  responses  is  like  the  animal's  method  of  getting 
results.  It  is  trial  and  error,  then  more  trial  and 
more  error  until,  by  chance,  one  hits  the  right 
thing.  We  have  popular  phrases  for  it  in  "  brute 
persistence  "  and  "  dogged  determination."  In  this 
method  of  learning,  we  might  say,  there  is  a  high 
birth-rate  and  a  high  death-rate  of  responses.  It  is, 
therefore,  likely  to  be  a  slow  and  wasteful  method. 
In  Fig.  8  is  shown  the  first  trial,  and  in  Fig.  9  the 
third  trial  of  a  ten-year-old  girl  in  tracing  the 
outline  of  a  star  while  looking  at  its  reflection 
in  a  mirror.  The  first  trial  took  14  minutes  2 
seconds,  the  third  trial  1  minute  56  seconds.  Her 
comment  on  the  performance  was:  "  When  I  push  it 
one  way  it  goes  another.  Oh,  this  is  quite  an- 
tao-onistic!  "     In  addition  to  the  loss  of  time  and  the 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  107 

waste  of  energy  which  appear  to  characterize  this 
method,  there  is  a  further  difficulty,  and  that  is  the 
task  of  foro-etting  all  th(>  wrong  ways  of  doing  a  thing 
and  remembering  only  the  right  one.  Some  of  these 
wrong  ways  may  have  been  repeated  many  times, 
and  all  of  them  have  some  tendency  to  recur,  simply 
because  they  have  once  happened.  We  shall  return 
in  a  later  paragraph  to  this  question  of  how  the  right 


Fig.  8.  Fig.  9. 

way  comes  to  be  retained  as  against  the  more  fre- 
quently experienced  wrong  ways. 

Learning  by  Impersonation,  or  Imitation. — The 
second  type  of  learning  is  a  process  in  which  one 
takes  advantage  of  the  fact  that  somebody  else  can 
show  how  the  desired  act  is  done.  The  term  "  imi- 
tation "  has  been  used  in  so  many  different  senses 
that  it  is  better  to  choose  for  our  purpose  some  less 
equivocal  expression,   and  the  phra=e  "  learning  by 


108  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

impersonation  "  is  here  suggested  for  that  kind  of 
learning  which  copies  an  act  performed  by  another 
individual.     We  need  not  discuss  here  the  question 
whether  impersonation  is  instinctive,  nor  whether  it 
is  practised  by  animals,  but  we  may  assume  with- 
out argument  that  it  does  exist  in  human  children, 
and  that  it  is  regularly  employed  as  a  means  of  in- 
struction in  school.     "  Showing  how  "  is,  for  some 
acts  of  skill,  the  only  effective  means  of  teaching, 
and  a  flexible  and  sympathetic  impersonator  readily 
falls  in  with  this  kind  of  instruction.     This  is  an 
essentially  human  and  social  type  of  learning.     It 
presupposes    some    degree    of   mental    development, 
since  the  feeble-minded  are  said  to  be  non-imitative. 
Children's  play  is  often  an  exercise  in  '^  following 
the    leader,"    and    the    child    who    constantly   plays 
policeman,  or  soldier,  or  teacher,  or  what  not,  is  so 
much  the  more  facile  in  putting  himself  into  the 
attitude  of  any  one  who  tries  to  set  him  an  example. 
Adjustment  to  Crises. — A  different  case  presents 
itself   in  situations   where   no   personal   example   is 
available,  and  in  which  the  end  must  be  reached  by  a 
single  performance,  with  no  trial  series.     The  young 
surgeon  in  his   first  major   operation  on   a   human 
subject  illustrates  the  case.     He  has  watched  older 
men  do  similar  operations,  and  has  himself  worked 
on  animals,  but  these  things  give  him  only  approxi- 
mations to  the  real  experience.     From  the  moment 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  109 

when  the  first  incision  is  made,  he  must  carry  out 
a  series  of  reactions  to  a  set  of  stimuli  which  are, 
in  many  points,  essentially  new.  Similarly,  the 
soldier  must  stick  to  his  training  and  make  it  tell  in 
the  face  of  a  thousand  surging  stimuli,  for  which 
his  imagined  manoeuvers  have  been  but  a  pale  prepa- 
ration. Turning  to  a  less  heroic  example,  we  may 
analyze  this  type  of  learning  in  more  detail.  I  recall 
the  experience  of  ringing  the  chimes  without  pre- 
liminary practice.  The  tune  to  be  played  was 
familiar,  and  I  did  some  mental  practising  by 
imagining  the  sequence  of  notes  on  the  ropes,  and 
deciding  which  hand  to  use  for  certain  ones.  I  had 
never  felt  the  actual  pull  of  the  ropes,  and,  as  no 
practice  was  permitted,  I  could  not  anticipate  the 
amount  of  strength  it  would  take,  nor  the  precise 
point  in  the  pull  where  the  decisive  jerk  must  be 
given,  though  I  tried  to  imagine  these  things  by 
watching  another  person.  When  the  moment  for  my 
debut  arrived  I  pulled  the  first  rope.  Things  then 
became  complex.  The  realization,  "  Oh,  that's  the  way 
it  feels !  "  was  accompanied  by  the  recognition  that 
I  had  not  pulled  hard  enough.  It  was  hard  to  think 
of  the  tune  and  to  get  on  to  the  next  note  in  time, 
instead  of  stopping  over  the  new  phase  in  the  experi- 
ence, namely,  the  feel  of  the  thing.  I  knew  that  tune 
as  an  auditory  and  a  visual  series,  but  I  did  not 
know  it  at  all  as  a  series  of  muscular  pulls  in  my 


110  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

hands  and  arms.  I  wilted  with  relief  when  the  last 
note  came,  only  to  be  jerked  up  with  the  quick 
command:  ''Go  straight  through  it  again."  I  sup- 
pressed the  tendency  to  argue,  and  did  finally  finish 
in  required  order.  The  essential  feature  about  this 
type  of  learning  is  that  the  learner  takes  an  estab- 
lished series  of  facts  or  ideas  into  a  situation  where 
they  are  controlled  by  a  novel  stimulus.  If  he  can 
retain  the  essential  elements  of  the  old  series  and 
not  be  swept  off  his  feet  by  the  untried  system  of 
cues,  then  he  learns  to  apply  his  habits  or  ideas  to 
some  new  case. 

Mechanical  Isolation  of  the  Cue. — There  is  still 
another  kind  of  learning  situation  which  we  must 
examine,  even  though  it  may  prove  to  be  not  a  really 
diiferent  sort  of  learning  process.  This  is  the  case 
in  which  a  teacher  consciously  isolates  the  feeling  or 
cue  to  the  new  act  for  the  pupil,  often  through  the 
agency  of  some  mechanical  device.  Some  examples 
will  make  this  clearer.  In  teaching  deaf  children  to 
speak,  the  first  part  of  the  process  can  be  accom- 
plished by  imitation.  Thus  Thompson "  writes : 
"  The  attention  is  first  attracted  by  gymnastic  move- 
ments of  the  body  and  its  parts,  which  are  imitated 
by  the  pupil.  In  the  beginning  these  movements  are 
large,  but  they  are  gradually  narrowed  down  to  the 
face  and  lips  and  tongue,  thus  directing  the  attention 
to  the  movements  tliat  must  be  watched  in  the  ac- 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  111 

quisitiou  of  speech  and  lip-reading."  There  comes  a 
time  when  this  imitation  will  carry  the  child  no  fur- 
ther. He  learns  to  make  the  same  external  mouth 
movements  that  his  teacher  does,  but  no  sound  comes 
out.  To  get  the  sound,  say,  of  p,  the  breath  must  be 
exploded  through  the  lips.  The  teacher,  therefore, 
holds  the  child's  hand  up  where  he  can  feel  the  gust 
of  air  which  is  bloA\Ti  out  when  the  sound  really 
comes,  or  a  bit  of  paper  which  is  made  to  flutter,  or 
a  candle  flame  to  flicker,  with  the  expulsion  of  the 
breath.  The  child  is  then  encouraged  to  try  to  open 
the  lips  and  to  blow  out  the  candle  flame  at  the  same 
time.  When  he  succeeds  in  doing  this  he  is  saying 
the  letter  p.  The  blowing  on  the  hand,  the  paper, 
or  the  candle  flame  is  the  mechanical  means  for  get- 
ting the  child  to  feel  the  necessary  cue.  To  distin- 
guish between  p  and  f,  the  candle  flame  is  held  in 
different  positions,  when  t  is  correctly  sounded  the 
column  of  air  from  the  lips  goes  down,  and  the  flame 
must  be  held  low,  whereas  for  p  the  flame  is  held 
straight  in  front.  (I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  Mabel 
Fernald  for  calling  my  attention  to  these  facts  con- 
cerning the  teaching  of  the  deaf  in  the  Chicago 
schools.) 

Another  illustration  of  the  same  principle  is  found 
in  the  devices  used  by  some  teachers  of  singing. 
The  throat  formation  which  is  desired  for  some  vocal 
exercises  is  present  in  the  yawning  reflex.     The  stu- 


112  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

dent  who  can  induce  a  voluntary  yawn,  or  who  pays 
attention  during  an  involuntary  one  to  the  feeling  in 
his  throat,  finds  there  the  cue  to  the  voluntary  con- 
trol of  an  "  open  "  throat.  This  cue  must  be  isolated 
from  the  complex  in  which  it  occurs,  and  instead  of 
being  associated  with  the  intake  of  breath,  as  in  the 
natural  yawn,  it  must  be  associated  with  the  giving 
out  of  the  breath,  as  in  a  singing  tone.  The  singer,  in 
a  sense,  learns  to  do  this  for  himself,  but  it  needs 
the  perception  of  the  teacher  to  tell  him  in  the  first 
place  that  the  feeling  in  the  yawning  throat  is  the 
one  that  he  is  to  work  for.  Much  the  same  forma- 
tion of  the  throat  is  present  also  in  the  vomiting 
reflex,  and  the  student  who  will  touch  the  throat  so  as 
to  provoke  the  initial  phase  of  this  reflex  may,  by 
attention  to  the  muscular  sensations,  get  a  clear 
realization  of  the  cue.  Other  devices,  such  as  imagin- 
ing an  egg  held  in  the  mouth,  or  the  saying  of  syl- 
lables like  "  ow,"  are  sometimes  useful.  An  appre- 
ciation of  these  points  is  certainly  a  help  to  some 
students  in  the  acquisition  of  voluntary  control, 
though  some  devices  work  with  one  student  and  not 
with  another. 

A  further  example  of  the  same  sort  appears  in  the 
teaching  of  the  German  u  umlaut,  as  follows:  The 
pupil  is  told  to  say  "  oo,"  then  to  say  "  ee,"  then 
"  00,"  then  "  ee,"  etc.,  in  rapid  succession.  When, 
after  practising  these  mouth  gymnastics,  the  student 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  113 

is  thoroughly  conscious  of  the  positions,  he  is  told  to 
hold  the  mouth  in  the  ''  oo "  position,  and  without 
relaxing  it  to  try  to  say  "  ee."  The  result  is  the 
ii  sound. 

Montessori  ^*  tells  how  she  tried  to  teach  a  feeble- 
minded girl  to  darn  stockings.  The  girl  could  not 
get  the  correct  movement  of  the  needle,  so  a  change 
was  made  to  the  Froebel  mat-weaving  exercise.  In 
the  weaving,  movements  similar  to  the  darning  were 
involved,  but  they  were  on  a  coarser  scale.  These  the 
girl  did  learn,  and  when  the  finer  material  was  once 
more  taken  up,  she  was  able  to  transfer  the  acquired 
skill  to  the  desired  medium.  In  this,  as  in  each  of  the 
preceding  cases,  the  learning  was  made  possible  be- 
cause the  teacher  first  perceived  the  similarity 
between  the  desired  movement  and  some  aspect  of  an 
established  reflex  or  habit  already  possessed  by  the 
learner. 

The  classical  experiment  in  teaching  control  of  a 
formerly  unknown  movement  is  that  of  Bair,^^  who 
taught  his  subjects  to  move  their  ears.  He  began  by 
giving  an  electrical  stimulation  to  the  retrahens  mus- 
cle of  the  ear.  By  this  artificial  contraction  a  definite 
kinesthetic  idea  of  the  movement  was  given  to  the 
subject.  At  first  the  movement  would  stop  as  soon 
as  the  electric  current  was  withdrawn,  but  gradually 
the  subject's  efforts  began  to  make  a  difference.  The 
difference  showed  at  first  as  a  reinforcement  of  the 


114  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

artificial  contraction.  At  length,  by  dint  of  much 
facial  contortion,  they  were  able  to  move  the  ear  a 
little,  independently  of  the  current.  From  that  point 
on,  the  force  of  the  voluntary  contractions  became 
greater,  and  the  irrelevant  parts  of  the  complex  began 
to  drop  away.  The  simultaneous  movements  of  the 
two  ears,  and  the  motions  of  jaws,  eyebrows,  and 
scalp,  were  dispensed  with.  ^'  Learning  to  make  a 
voluntary  movement,"  says  Bair,  "  is  largely  a  mat- 
ter of  learning  to  relax."  It  is  the  same  story  every- 
where,— the  relaxed  throat  in  singing,  the  relaxed 
wrist  in  piano-playing,  the  relaxed  body  in  swim- 
ming,— and  in  teaching!  Complete  mastery  means 
that  all  superfluous  items  have  been  eliminated,  and 
that  no  unnecessary  energy  is  being  used.  Expert 
movements  are  always  economical  and  graceful. 

Learning  by  Abstract  Ideas. — We  are  said  to  have 
learned  something  when  a  new  fact  or  conviction  has 
come  to  us,  either  as  a  result  of  our  own  reasoning, 
or  as  a  communication  from  some  one  else.  There 
is  no  practice  series  in  this  kind  of  learning.  Fur- 
thermore it  differs  from  any  of  the  preceding  kinds  of 
learning  in  that  it  is  less  immediately  connected  with 
overt  action.  It  need  not  show  up  in  conduct  until  a 
remote  day.  "  To  learn  "  in  this  sense  does  not 
differ  from  "  to  apprehend,  or  understand."  "  I 
learn  "  from  the  morning  paper  the  date  of  a  concert, 
I  learn  from  a  map  how  to  find  a  certain  street  in 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  115 

the  city,  or  I  learn  by  inference  that  my  dog  has  heen 
killing  cats.  All  these  bits  of  information  will  be 
used  evcntnally,  but  the  range  of  time  may  vary  im- 
mensely. It  is  so  in  the  case  of  abstract  ideas  gen- 
erally, they  are  a  kind  of  long-distance  learning. 

We  must  now  ask  whether  the  several  instances 
described  above  are  indeed  separate  types  of  learning, 
or  whether   there   are    essential    similarities    among 

them. 

Relations  Between  Types  of  Learning.— Trial  and 
error  has  been  called  a  slow  and  wasteful  method,  and 
certainly  there  are  times  when  a  personal  example 
to  copy  would  save  many  hours  of  fruitless  experi- 
mentation. On  the  other  hand,  if  we  take  a  suf- 
ficiently critical  attitude  toward  the  first  attempt  at 
impersonation,  or  following  a  model,  we  are  sure  to 
find  that  this  first  trial  is  not  absolutely  exact.  As 
we  watch,  for  instance,  the  child  trying  to  imitate 
the  writing  movements  of  his  teacher,  we  see  that  he  is 
going  through  the  trial  and  error  performance  all  over 
again,  only  it  is  confined  Avithin  a  narrower  circle. 
It  is  seldom  possible  for  the  learner  to  settle  into 
the  right  form  without  a  season  of  groping  and  feel- 
ing about.  Impersonation,  then,  does  not  eliminate 
trial  and  error,  but  it  does  give  the  first  gross  adjust- 
ments to  a  new  act,  and  cuts  down  the  necessary  range 
of  trial. 

In    learning   by    a    single    performance    we    have 


116  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

something  which  is  akin  to  learning  by  abstract  ideas. 
In  the  handling  of  a  crisis  we  transfer  to  it  ideas 
about  similar  situations.  If  similar  crises  recur  there 
occurs  a  gradual  improvement  in  the  capacity  to 
handle  them.  In  fact,  wherever  improvement  in  a 
series  of  acts  occurs,  we  may  say  that  there  has  been 
elimination  of  error. 

In  the  case  of  reasoning,  or  learning  by  abstract 
thought,  it  is  probable  that  there  is  habitually  present 
a  genuine  analogue  to  the  trial  and  error  method  of 
animal  learning.  The  following  quotation  from 
Edison  ^°  is  not  an  isolated  instance.  He  says : 
"  Through  all  those  years  of  experimenting  and 
research  (on  the  electric  light),  I  never  once  made 
a  discovery.  ...  I  would  construct  a  theory  and 
work  on  its  lines  until  I  found  it  was  untenable. 
Then  it  would  be  discarded  and  another  theory 
evolved.  ...  I  speak  without  exaggeration  when 
I  say  that  I  have  constructed  3,000  different  theories 
in  connection  with  the  electric  light,  each  of  them 
reasonable  and  apparently  likely  to  be  true.  Yet, 
only  in  two  cases  did  my  experiments  prove  the  truth 
of  my  theory."  Similar  accounts  are  given  of  Dar- 
win and  others,  all  going  to  show  that  the  great 
thinker  passes  through  a  stage  of  ideal  trial  and 
error  in  arriving  at  his  theories  or  generalizations. 
Trial  and  error,  instead  of  being  merely  a  sub-human 
method  of  solving  difficulties,  seems  to  be  an  essential 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  117 

phase  of  the  thought  process  itself.  Jevons  has  sug- 
gested that  great  minds  make  uiore  mistakes  than 
lesser  ones,  but  do  not  repeat  their  mistakes.  It  is 
not  the  absence  of  mistakes,  but  their  rapid  elimina- 
tion which  is  a  mark  of  intelligence.  A  rich  supply 
of  alternative  reactions  is  the  best  basis  for  learning, 
and  "  errors "  are  the  regular  preliminary  to  the 
selection  of  the  best  response. 

Fertility  of  response,  then,  is  the  first  condition  of 
educability.  The  second  is  the  social  milieu.  Other 
people  furnish  models  for  impersonation  or  imita- 
tion. They  help  the  learner  to  analyze  and  isolate 
the  cues  to  action,  they  communicate  their  own  ex- 
periences to  him,  and  they  help  him  to  judge  of  his 
own  success  in  performing  a  new  act.  In  all  these 
ways  they  shorten  and  expedite  the  learning  process. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  most  cases  of  human  learning 
exhibit  in  some  degree  these  two  factors,  the  origi- 
nal fertility  of  the  individual,  and  the  standards  of 
criticism,  the  checks,  which  society  builds  up  for  him 
and  in  him. 

Some  Learning  Curves. — Fig.  10  shows  the  prog- 
ress of  a  young  woman,  twenty-one  years  old,  in  nine 
trials  with  the  star-tracing  test.  The  solid  line  gives 
the  time  in  seconds  for  each  trial,  ranging  in  this 
case  from  llY  on  the  first  to  65  on  the  last  trial. 
The  dotted  line  gives  the  errors  in  terms  of  the  num- 
jber  of  departures  from  the  line,  i.e.,  the  superfluous 


118 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


or   errant  movements.      The   broken  line   gives   the 
error  in  the  amount  of  line  left  untraced,  i.e.,  work 


120—    -           -    -    --    — —_    -   —_    -   -_- 

, 

\                                           .                       _           - 

110  ' 

L 

I 

-,n«  V   "                   _:__-- 

100   -^     ± 

90  -    ^                                      -                      .           -      _   - 

t 

^„         I                                                         _____ 

80         J                                                                    _ 

""             H                                                                                                       -t- 

i 

t                                            25 

\       -!^S                                        __     2-    s 

70                .^'^      S      ^^.                                     /-      5 

•^             5  IK                 .^           ^     -       ^ 

^    ^                    ^^       ^^       V           -              ^ 

;^s.           +^^        ^^       ^^^               ^ 

60    ^^      ""^            ^        C      '                                 "I 

-t        "*          t       lis 

X                               -T- 

50               ^"ir          t           tt 

^  J            ^          ^  + 

V                         t               '^ 

40 "   ~                       "        V     2^~"    \.                          ~   ~ 

30  ^              -                         ^^              X              Z    V 

""^^^        i-                       ^        -, 

■•          ^;zt    ZrE-^                                                  t            '^ 

j^-'-                ^                         t^       ^r           :^ 

30                                         .                        +        I 

^^          _^      3      X^- •- 

10                                       -                         a!        ' 

r 

o:               ______ 

Fig.  10. 


not  done.     The  curves  show  that  in  this  task  there 
was  a  decrease  in  speed,  a  decrease  in  error  or  super- 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  119 

fluoiis  movement,  and  an  increase  in  accuracy.  There 
are  wide  individual  variations  in  this  test.  I  gave 
one  trial  each  to  106  college  girls,  averaging  eighteen 
years  of  age.  The  median  speed  was  2  minutes,  the 
range  was  from  36  seconds  to  8  minutes  17  seconds, 
and  there  were  two  who  failed  to  get  around  the  star 
in  the  fifteen-minute  time  limit.  The  median  error 
(untraced  line)  was  162.5  mm.,  the  range  of  error 
heing  from  11  mm.  to  351  mm. 

The  next  learning  curve,  Fig.  11,  is  derived  from 


■ 

~ 

r 

J" 

I 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

-- 

- 

1    1    1    1   1    1    1    1    1   1    1    1    1    1   1 

— 

" 

" " 

■" 

" 

mean  error 

A 

\, 

— 

m 

;S 

\ 

^ 

\ 

L, 

, 

^ 

^r 

*^ 

1 

- 

-.— 

•^Q 

\ 

, 

[- 

L_  -_ 

}j3 

\ 

>. 

_ 

_ 

1 

1 

_ 



— 

^. 

-  i^ 

■■ 

" 

'-- 

- 

.. 

. 

* 

■- 

-^ 

~ 

^ 

Uo 

— 

■" 

^ 

•^ 

w^ 

^r- 

^ 

— 

~ 

'> 

L 

iH 

'>. 

^ 

«• 

^ 

■^ 

1 

_ 

__ 

^ 

_ 

__ 

_ 

J 

_ 

J 

L_ 

L_ 

L 

1_ 

L 

L 

LU 

10  circles  per  day  lor  lU  days 


Fig.  11. 


a  test  in  which  the  subject  practised  drawing  per- 
fect circles.  The  center  of  the  circle  and  one  point 
on  the  circumference  were  given,  and  the  subject  was 
directed  to  draw  with  one  stroke  of  the  pencil  a  circle 
ten  centimeters  in  diameter.  The  subject  was  allowed 
to  look  at  a  model  circle  of  the  right  size.  To  estimate 
the  error  a  diagram  like  Fig.  12,  drawn  on  trans- 


120 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


parent  paper,  was  laid  over  each  trial  circle,  and  the 
number  of  millimeters  was  measured  by  which  the  trial 
circle  diverged  from  the  model,  at  each  of  the  eight 
radii.  The  sum  of  these  deviations  was  taken  as  a 
rough  index  of  the  total  error.  The  most  striking- 
fact  about  the  curves  derived  from  this  test  is  the 
slowness    and    uncertainty    of    improvement.     They 


Fig.  12. 

show  no  sharp  initial  drop,  as  the  star-tracing  curves 
usually  do,  but  proceed  almost  horizontally.  This  we 
may  interpret  to  mean  that  even  in  the  first  trial  this 
test  does  not  call  for  an  adjustment  to  a  really  new 
situation,  such  as  the  subject  meets  in  the  star-tracing 
test.  All  the  subjects  knew  how  to  draw  a  circle  in 
the  sense  of  knowing  the  kind  of  movement,  and  the 
direction  to  make  it  in.  Hence,  the  test  starts  at  a 
relatively  later  stage  of  the  learning  process  than  does 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS 


121 


the  star-tracing  test,  in  which  the  feeling  is  new  and 
puzzling.  With  the  circles  we  start  closer  to  the 
"  physiological  level  "  of  skill,  and  the  problem  of 
practice  is  merely  to  perfect  a  habit  which  is  already 
understood  on  the  mental  side.  Fig.  13  shows  the 
variation  of  one  subject  during  the  first  day's 
practice  (solid  line)  and  during  the  last  day's  prac- 
tice (dotted  line).    This  difference  illustrates  the  fact 


7i  1  1  I  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  I  1  1  I  1  1 

H — 1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  M  1 1 

errnr  curvp  of  first  day 

^  5l 

ci::-::-    Tc 

b t-S 

-4- 

■ 

L 

1 

5 

C-*           "  -       i-  - 

L._                    

5-*,^    --      -      -             f 

S 

,                               t 

\                          X 

^         _-*s. 

1                   t^    - 

rrnrfK 

A                        \                                          I      -      - 

s.             

4       -    -    t                        f 

%                   7 

\ 

^.              ^' 

H 

\             7 

1 

\r         ^ 

9                       X                          ]               - 

-         -      -  \        I  - 

6-                \-                    '- 

s,      T,*^ 

^s^    t 

L 

^^^ 

\            : 

St 

aiiii^s-:^:::::: ':::::: 

^-> 

^—^--\-\ 

Z      ^\ 

y       Xj    ^"'i^ 

'-                          y           ^^ 

t           ^jt^r.--— [t^^. 

1    7                                \,^ 

V                ^                    J^_ 

1 

^      V 

'^^ 

A__          

Fig.  13. 

that  variation  tends  to  decrease  toward  the  end  of  a 
practice  series.  Woodworth""  reports,  as  a  result 
of  aiming  tests,  that,  as  an  individual  improves  in 
skill,  his  successive  trials  become  more  and  more  uni- 
form, and  that  a  diminishing  variability  means  a 


122  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

diminishing  possibility  of  improvement,  i.e.,  it  means 
the  approach  to  the  physiological  limit  of  skill. 

The  work  of  Bryan  and  Harter  ^^^  called  attention 
to  the  existence  of  "  plateaus  "  in  the  learning  curve. 
By  plateaus  they  mean  sections  in  the  learning  curve 
which  are  nearly  horizontal,  and  which  indicate, 
therefore,  periods  of  no  apparent  improvement. 
These  periods  vary  in  length  from  days  to  months. 
Whether  they  are  necessary  stages  in  all  learning 
curves  which  are  sufficiently  extended  is  a  question 
which,  unfortunately,  cannot  be  answered  until  more 
evidence  is  available.  It  is  possible  that  the  pub- 
lished curves  which  do  not  show  such  plateaus  might 
do  so  if  the  records  of  practice  were  kept  up  for 
months  or  years.  The  question  is  one  of  considerable 
importance  for  the  school ;  for,  on  the  one  hand,  when 
a  pupil  strikes  a  plateau  his  teacher  may  urge  him  to 
keep  persistently  at  work,  on  the  theory  that  it  is 
essential  to  pull  through  this  period  of  marking  time, 
and  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  the  theory  that  these 
levels  are  unnecessary  and  vicious  and  that  the  pupil 
had  better  take  a  rest.  It  is  conceivable  that  per- 
sistent drilling  on  a  performance,  without  improve- 
ment, only  tends  to  fix  it  as  it  is,  in  an  inferior 
stage,  and  makes  it  harder  to  break  through  finally 
into  an  improved  form.  From  this  point  of  view  no 
drill  should  ever  be  mere  drill,  but  should  always 
be  accompanied  by  the  effort  to  make  each  individual 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  123 

performance  the  best  From  this  point  of  view  the 
following,  from  a  teacher  of  singing,  is  exactly  wrong: 
"  Practice  ...  is  singing  the  same  thing  over  and 
over  again  without  the  slightest  effort  to  find  a  bet- 
ter way,  without  experimenting,  just  singing  for  so 
long  a  time  a  day  with  your  mind  on  something  else. 
And  then  when  you  have  done  that  a  few  thousand 
times,  by  the  virtue  of  repetition,  your  voice  keeps 
getting  better  and  better."  Practising  one  thing  with 
your  mind  on  something  else  is  fairly  sure  to  lead 
to  slipshod  results. 

Let  us  resume,  now,  the  chief  items  which  have 
been  established  about  the  learning  process.  On  the 
subjective  side:  (a)  The  idea  of  a  new  movement 
comes  first  from  the  involuntary  performance  of  it. 
(b)  This  performance  is  usually  a  part  of  a  complex, 
as  in  the  case  of  diffuse  discharge,  and  of  symmetrical 
movements,  (c)  Its  essential  cue  must  be  analyzed, 
isolated,  and  applied  to  the  new  purpose.  On  the 
ohjedive  side,  that  is,  as  judged  by  learning  curves : 
(a)  There  is  at  first  a  large  and  obvious  improve- 
ment, i.e.,  a  steep  change  in  the  curve,  (b)  In  some 
curves  plateaus  occur,  (c)  Improvement  is  irregular 
from  day  to  day,  or  from  trial  to  trial,  (d)  The  rate 
of  improvement  in  later  phases  of  the  curve  is  not  so 
great  as  in  the  first,  (e)  Variability  decreases  as  the 
limits  of  improvement  arc  approached. 

In  the  star-traeJPg  and  circle-drawing  curves,  as 


124  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

well  as  in  the  results  on  typewriting  by  Bryan  and 
Harter,*^''  and  on  learning  to  toss  balls,  by  Swift/" 
the  skill  involved  is  partly  mental  and  partly  physical. 
Improvement  records  have  been  kept  also  for  func- 
tions which  are  more  purely  mental.  Swift  reports 
his  progress  in  learning  the  Russian  language,  and 
Thorndike  "^®  gives  records  of  practice  in  arithmetical 
computation  carried  on  without  objective  aid.  The 
curves  are  essentially  similar  to  those  which  represent 
a  combination  of  mental  and  physical  skill. 

The  Role  of  Pleasure  and  Pain  in  Learning. — 
The  question  arose,  in  connection  with  the  discussion 
of  trial  and  error,  why  is  it  that  the  successful  at- 
tempt to  do  an  act  becomes  associated  with  the 
desired  object,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  those  other 
attempts  which  may  have  been  more  frequently  re- 
peated. How  does  the  right  way  get  fixed  in  memory  ? 
In  the  series  of  letters  given  belowj  suppose  that  X 
is  a  desired  object,  and  X'  is  the  idea  of  the  object 
or  the  stimulus  which  first  starts  us  toward  the  ob- 
ject. Let  the  other  letters  represent  different  ways 
of  trying  for  X,  of  which  e  only  is  correct.     Why 

X'    abacccdce    X 

should  not  c,  which  is  the  most  frequent,  or  a,  which 
has  the  advantage  of  primacy  in  the  series,  be  as  likely 
to  occur  again  as  e,  which  in  this  series  occurs  but 
once  ?     The  usual  answer  is  that  the  successful  way 


THE  LEARNING  PROCESS  125 

is  remembered  because  of  the  pleasure  which  it  gives. 
This  statement,  however,  needs  some  expansion  or 
modification.    If,  by  pleasure,  we  mean  simply  agree- 
able feeling  or  affective   tone,   then  it   is   doubtful 
whether  it  does  have  any  direct  effect  in  stamping  in 
an  impression.     I  made  experiments  ^^"-  with   adult 
subjects  to  see  whether  "  pleasant,  unpleasant,  or  in- 
different "   combinations  of  color   stimuli   were  the 
easiest  to  recall.    The  subjects  were  directed  to  attend 
to  each  color  design  as  it  was  thrown  on  the  screen, 
and  to  reproduce  its  details  afterward.     They  also 
judged  each  design  as  pleasant,  unpleasant,  or  in- 
different.    The  affective  reaction  of  the  subjects  ap- 
peared to  have  no  connection  with  the  success  of  the 
recall.      Peters,^*  however,  who  has  made  a  recent 
study  of  experiences  which  are  recalled  in  response 
to  a  given  word  stimulus,  and  has  classified  the  re- 
sponses affectively,  finds  that  there  is  a  higher  per- 
centage  of  recall   for   agreeable   experiences.      The 
disparity  between  these  results  may  be  reconciled. 
Kiilpe*^  says,  commenting  upon  my  tests,  that  the 
subjects  were  required  by  the  conditions  of  the  ex- 
periment to  attend  to  the  unpleasant  and  indifferent 
stimuli  as  closely  as  to  the  pleasant  ones,  and  that  it  is 
attention  which  determines  recall.      Ordinarily,   he 
suggests,  it  is  the  agreeable  stimulus  which  commands 
attention,  and  that  it  is  on  account  of  the  attention 
thus  given,  not  on  account  of  the  affective  quality  as 


126  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

such,  that  the  pleasant  may  be  better  recalled.  Peters 
also  finds  that  there  is  a  difference  in  the  ratio  of 
pleasant  experiences  recalled  according  as  those  events 
were  recent  or  remote  in  time.  Among  remote  events 
recalled  there  is  a  higher  percentage  of  the  pleasant. 
Peters  agrees  with  Frend  that  the  desire  to  forget 
the  unpleasant  often  results  in  an  actual  forgetting. 
Attention  is  withdrawn,  sometimes  unconsciously, 
sometimes  deliberately,  from  painful  memories,  and 
this  accounts  for  the  high  percentage  of  pleasant 
memories  among  reported  happenings. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  the  "■  stamping  in  " 
of  the  successful  reaction,  it  is  probably  more  ac- 
curate to  say  that  it  is  not  the  pleasure,  so  much  as 
the  attention  stimulated  by  it,  which  makes  the  dif- 
ference. Should  this  distinction  seem  immaterial 
to  the  student,  there  is  another  way  of  putting  the 
matter.  The  successful  movement  is  attended  to 
and  retained  because  it  fits  into  a  whole  act,  or  an 
organized  system  of  acts,  as  none  of  the  wrong  re- 
actions do.  The  idea  of  the  object,  the  correct  move- 
ment, and  the  object  attained  make  a  series  which 
has  inner  connection  and  meaning.  In  a  later  dis- 
cussion on  memory  we  shall  see  that  the  factor  of 
meaning  or  coherence  is  one  of  the  strongest  in  mak- 
ing an  impression  permanent.  Accordingly  we  may 
say  that  it  is  the  fitness  of  the  right  movement  which 
accounts  for  its  persistence. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
IMAGINxYTIOK 

Imagery  and  Imagination. — The  revival  in  idea 
of   the   sensuous   qualities   of   things   is    a   form   of 
human  behavior.     Let  a  man  hear  a  melody,  see  a 
picture,  or  breathe  a  perfume,  and  he  may  find  that, 
later,  when  all  his  surroundings  are  quite  changed, 
those  tones,  that  vision,  or  that  fragrance  are  living 
in  him  again  in  their  essential  quality.     We  call  it 
imaging.     Sometimes  these  likenesses  are  large  and 
vivid  and  faithful  in  form,  sometimes  they  are  small 
and  changed.     Some  he  remembers,  and  knows  their 
origin,   others  seem   foreign  and   unknown  to  him. 
Usually  he  can  tell  that  they  are  ''just  images,"  but 
upon  occasion  he  mistakes  one  for  a  really  present 
object,    and   has   an  hallucination.      Again,   he   can 
order  these  images  about  at  will,  hold  them  firm,  or 
knead  them  into  divers  forms.     At  other  times  they 
get  the  upper  hand,  holding  his  attention  whether  he 
likes  it  or  not,  and  even  suggesting  with  imperious 
force    the    performance    of    some    unwelcome    deed. 
Imagery  thus  appears  to  be  a  very  pervasive  aspect 
of  mental   activity;   it  is   present  in   dreaming,   in 

127 


128  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

remembrance,  in  invention  and  in  reasoning.  "  The 
consciousness  of  objects  not  present  to  sense,"  as 
Angell  defines  imagination,  very  well  expresses  the 
broad  and  inclusive  nature  of  the  conception. 

It  is  customary  to  distinguish  two  kinds  of  imagi- 
nation,— reproductive  and  productive, — and  to  de- 
scribe the  former  as  a  more  or  less  exact  copy  of  some 
previous  sensory  experience,  and  the  latter  as  a  re- 
arrangement into  new  form  of  the  reproduced  ma- 
terial. This  is  a  useful  distinction,  provided  it  is  not 
understood  to  mean  that  there  are  two  sharply  distinct 
types  of  imagination.  Reproduction  refers  to  the 
origin  of  the  image,  and  to  cases  of  imagination  in 
which  the  origins  are  apparent;  whereas  production 
refers  rather  to  the  destination  or  use  of  the  image,  and 
cases  in  which  it  may  be  hard  to  trace  the  origins.  In 
all  imagination  both  factors  are  present.  We  might 
substitute  for  reproductive  and  productive  imagina- 
tion the  terms  "  content  "  and  "  function  "  of  imagi- 
nation. In  the  current  use  of  the  word,  "  imagery  " 
generally  means  the  content,  and  the  word  "  imagina- 
tion "  the  functional  or  active  aspect. 

The  Existence  of  the  Image  How  Proved? — The 
image  appears  to  be  so  entirely  subjective  that  some 
writers  have  been  led  to  question  its  very  existence. 
Our  knowledge  of  it  seems  to  depend  so  exclusively 
upon  the  subject's  introspection,  it  is  so  personal  a 
possession,  that  we  are  in  the  position  of  having  to 


IMAGINATION  129 

accept  the  testimony  of  a  single  witness  on  it.  Psy- 
chologists would  like  to  find  some  objective  proof  of 
this  introspection,  some  difference  in  behavior,  or  in 
external  accomplishment  which  would  correspond  to 
the  presence  or  absence  of  images,  or  which  would  be 
affected  by  the  kind  of  image  used. 

One  line  of  evidence  on  the  existence  of  the  image 
comes  from  the  spontaneous  comments  of  persons  who 
are  not  interested  in  either  side  of  the  controversy 
over  images,  who  are  not,  in  fact,  thinking  about  psy- 
chology at  all.  For  example,  your  friend  comj:)lains 
that  he  cannot  get  rid  of  the  tune  which  has  been 
jingling  in  his  head  all  day.  Or  you  read  such  an 
item  as  this  in  the  Public  Ledger:  "  Marshal  Putnik 
seldom  if  ever  refers  to  a  map.  He  has  a  gift  unique 
among  military  men.  Before  his  mind's  eye  he  can 
see  all  Serbia  spread  out  before  him  like  a  gigantic 
relief  map,  and  he  knows  that  map  down  to  the  most 
minute  topographical  details."  Moreover,  children 
often  supply  naive  comments  upon  their  imagery 
which  can  scarcely  have  been  suggested  by  others. 

Aside  from  such  casual  data  the  psychologist  must 
get  systematic  records.  Galton's  ^^  well-known  ques- 
tionnaire was  one  of  the  earliest  attempts  of  this  kind. 
Ilis  work  (preceded  by  that  of  Fechner  and  Charcot) 
set  stirring  a  number  of  imagery  problems.  Is  it 
possible  to  divide  people  into  the  so-called  imagery 
types,    as    "  audiles,"    "  visuals,"    etc.  ?     Do    men 


130  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

differ  from  women,  do  children  differ  from  adults,  or 
one  class  of  workers  from  another,  in  the  power  to 
command  images  ?  Is  imagery  educable  ?  The  defect 
of  Galton's  method  is  the  common  defect  of  most 
questionnaires,  that  they  ask  the  subject,  who  may  or 
may  not  be  trained  in  introspection,  to  answer  from 
his  experience  at  large.  An  improvement  over  the 
questionnaire  is  found  in  several  of  the  association 
tests  which  have  been  used.  Kraepelin  ®^  asked  his 
subjects  to  write  lists  of  objects  (a)  characterized  by 
their  color ;  (b)  by  their  sound,  (c)  odor,  etc. 
Secor  ^°  submitted  to  his  subjects  lists  of  words  which 
were  designed  to  call  out  special  kinds  of  associated 
images.  Pfeiffer's  test  as  presented  by  Starch  ^^  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  forty  words,  and  after  each  of 
these  the  subject  is  told  to  write  down  the  first  associa- 
tion which  comes  as  he  reads  the  word.  These  asso- 
ciated words  are  then  classified  according  to  the  type 
of  image  which  they  seem  to  indicate.  As  a  result  of 
this  method  used  with  a  group  of  twenty-six  persons, 
Starch  gives  the  following  distribution :  Visual 
images  51.0  per  cent.,  auditory  23.3  per  cent.,  motor 
14.5  per  cent.,  tactile  9.5  per  cent,  miscellaneous  1.7 
per  cent.  I  gave  the  test  to  twelve  young  women, 
who  were  told  to  specify  carefully,  after  the  asso- 
ciations were  written  down,  the  sensory  quality  of 
their  images.  The  distribution  was  (verbal  images 
are  recorded  separately) :  Visual  57.2  per  cent.,  audi- 


IMAGINATION  131 

tory  12.7  per  cent.,  motor  0.2  per  cent.,  tactile  3.3 
per  cent.,  visual  verbal  3.9  per  cent,  auditory  verbal 
8.1  per  cent.,  motor  verbal  (articnlatory)  1.6  per 
cent.,  miscellaneous  5.8  per  cent.  If  these  figures  are 
to  be  compared  with  Starch's,  the  verbal  images  must 
be  added  in  with  others,  and  when  this  is  done  it 
appears  that  the  only  significant  difference  between 
the  two  is  the  rather  greater  ratio  in  my  group  of  the 
visual  images,  and  the  slightly  lesser  proportion  of  the 
motor  and  tactile.  If  Starch's  group  includes  men 
(a  point  which  he  does  not  specify),  this  difference 
would  be  in  agreement  with  the  traditional  notion 
that  women  show  some  preference  for  visual  imagery 
and  men  for  motor.  Another  point  illustrated  by  our 
results,  which  is  in  accord  with  a  current  view,  is  the 
preponderance  of  auditory  verbal  over  visual  verbal 
images,  although  in  non-verbal  material  the  visual 
outnumber  the  auditory  images. 

A  study  of  the  subjective  judgments  of  people  as 
to  the  vividness  and  clearness  of  their  imagery  is 
reported  by  Betts,^*  who  finds  that  there  is  no  strik- 
ing superiority,  in  this  respect,  of  one  kind  of  imagery 
over  others. 

It  has  been  contended  by  Segal,  Mcumann  and 
others,  and  amply  illustrated  in  Fernald's  ^^  work, 
that  the  type  of  image  which  a  given  person  uses 
varies  greatly  with  the  conditions  of  the  experiment. 
Hence  the  subject  may  be  an  "  audile  "  in  one  task. 


132  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

a  "  visual  "  in  another,  and  a  "  motor  "  in  a  third ; 
nor  is  it  at  all  unlikely  that  he  may  shift  from 
moment  to  moment  within  the  same  task.  It  becomes, 
therefore,  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  try  to  find 
tasks  whose  solution  demands  a  given  type  of  image, 
or  at  least  gives  the  user  of  such  imagery  a  decided 
advantage.  Such  problems,  could  they  be  found, 
would  constitute  objective  tests  of  the  presence  of 
these  images. 

Exercises  which  would  seem  to  require  the  use  of 
visual  imagery  are  those  which  involve  spatial  rela- 
tions and  color.  We  may  mention  first  a  test  of 
Washburn's,®"  employed  by  her  to  try  the  subject's 
control  over  visual  images.  The  diagram  of  a  square 
divided  by  lines  into  sixteen  smaller  squares  is  ex- 
posed for  a  few  seconds,  and  then  removed.  The  sub- 
ject is  then  asked  to  imagine  an  object  moved  about 
among  those  squares.  Thus,  starting  from  the  upper 
left-hand  corner,  he  must  execute  the  following  imagi- 
nary movements :  "  One  square  obliquely  down  and 
to  right,  two  to  right,  two  down,  one  to  left,  three 
up,  one  obliquely  down  to  left,  one  to  left,  two  down, 
two  obliquely  up  to  right,  one  to  right,"  and  so  on. 
It  is  higlily  probable  that  much  more  than  merely 
visual  features  goes  into  the  working  of  these  series. 
I  think,  judging  from  the  use  of  a  modified  form 
of  the  test  as  a  class  experiment,  that  the  answers  to 
some  of  the  movements  can  be  given  numerically,  and 


IMAGINATION  133 

not  l\y  a  visualized  motion,  but  the  visual  image  seems 
greatly  to  facilitate  the  doing  of  the  test  and  is  usu- 
ally present. 

Another  task  involving  space  relations,  this  time 
in  three  dimensions,  is  one  of  the  problems  used  by 
Bctts.****  The  subject  must  answer  the  following 
questions :  "  A  three-inch  cube,  painted  red,  is 
sawed  into  inch  cubes.  How  many  cubes  are 
there  ?  How  many  of  the  inch  cubes  have  paint 
on  three  faces  ?  IIow  many  on  two  faces  ?  How 
many  on  one  face  ?  IIow  many  have  no  paint 
on  tliem  ?  "  This  test  has  been  proposed  also  by 
Bolton  "^  as  ^^an  excellent  test  of  visual  imagery." 
Of  Betts's  twenty-eight  subjects  all  but  four  reported 
visual  images  for  three  or  more  of  tlie  questions.  I 
find  that  these  questions  can  be  quickly  and  accu- 
rately answered  by  students  who  profess  to  use  little 
or  no  visual  imagery,  but  that  the  usual  thing  is  for 
the  subject  to  answer  on  the  basis  of  visual  and  kin- 
esthetic images. 

Yet  another  test  which  involves  appreciation  of 
shape,  position,  and  color  is  the  following.  A  chart 
of  nine  simple  designs  as  in  Fig.  14,  each  painted  in 
a  single  distinct  color,  is  shown  for  thirty  seconds. 
The  subject  is  instructed  that  he  is  to  reproduce  the 
shapes,  after  the  chart  has  been  taken  away,  in  their 
correct  positions  and  colors.  A  box  of  water-color 
paints  is  provided  which  contains  all   the  required 


134 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


tones.  This  whole  task  seems  at  first  to  belong  defi- 
nitely in  the  visual  field,  because  the  original  stimulus 
is  visual,  and  the  means  of  reproduction  and  the 
final  product  are  visual.  But  the  reports  of  the  sub- 
jects show  that  the  intervening  mental  processes  are 
by  no  means  exclusively  visual.  I  tried  it  upon 
twenty-one  girls,  between  ten  and  twelve  years  of  age. 


v 


Fig.  14. 


and  upon  twenty-five  women.  In  the  case  of  both 
groups  the  comments  of  the  subjects  indicate  that 
those  who  scored  well  were  the  ones  who  translated 
their  visual  impressions  of  the  chart  into  other  terms. 
Some  compared  the  figures  to  objects ;  thus  one  child 
called   the   upper   left-hand   figure   "  a  lemon   with 


IMAGINATION  135 

wings,"  and  several  called  the  next  one  a  flag.  Many 
located  the  colors  as  ''red  in  the  upper  right,"  and 
carried  this  impression  in  verbal  form.  Some  made 
imitative  motions  with  the  hands  as  a  mnemonic  aid. 
Several,  on  the  contrary,  who  scored  poorly  said  that 
they  depended  wholly  upon  the  visual  image.  Suc- 
cess, then,  in  this  test  appears  to  depend  less  upon  the 
use  of  the  visual  image  than  upon  the  tendency  to 
handle  or  work  over  the  impression  into  something 
different.  Angell  ^^^  has  pointed  out  this  translating 
tendency  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  mental  grip 
on  a  given  content.  This  test  is  quoted  here  to  illus- 
trate how  unsafe  it  is  to  argue  a  priori  that  the  repro- 
duction in  visual  terms  of  a  visual  stimulus  implies 
the  use  of  the  visual  image. 

Probably  the  most  successful  of  the  tests  which  are 
designed  to  show  the  presence  of  the  visual  image  is 
the  one  offered  by  Fernald,**^  in  which  the  subject 
spells  backwards  the  words  of  a  given  list,  and  his 
speed  for  each  word  is  recorded  along  wuth  his  report 
on  the  type  of  image  used.  She  writes  as  follows: 
"  In  general,  we  seem  justified  in  saying  that  the  re- 
sults indicate  that  the  rapidity  of  this  form  of  spell- 
ing-is favored  by  the  ability  to  summon  clear,  vivid, 
and  stable  visual  images  of  the' words  without  a  very 
great  need  for  accessory  factors  .  .  .  we  cannot  rely 
upon  this  as  a  purely  objective  test,  since  it  would 
lead  us  into  many  errors  of  diagnosis.    As  a  partially 


136  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

objective  test,  however,  lending  confirmation  to  the 
reports  of  the  subjects,  it  would  seem  to  be  of  greater 
value."  I  have  repeated  this  test,^^^  selecting  a  more 
uniform  series  of  words,  and  find  m^'self  in  agree- 
ment with  Fernald's  estimate  of  the  test.  My  ex- 
periments were  made  with  twent^^-five  girls,  between 
the  ages  of  ten  and  twelve,  and  twenty-five  women, 
most  of  Avhom  were  about  twenty-one  years  old.  In 
both  groups  speed  correlated  with  the  use  of  the  com- 
plete and  clear  visual  picture  of  the  word.  There  is 
little  or  no  correlation  between  speed  in  this  spelling 
test  and  success  in  the  reproduction  of  the  colored 
chart  of  the  preceding  test.  It  may  be  noted  that  in 
the  spelling  test  the  stimulus  is  given  in  auditory  form, 
i.e.,  the  words  are  pronounced  by  the  experimenter, 
and  are  translated,  by  the  best  subjects,  into  visual 
form ;  whereas  in  the  colored-chart  test  the  stimulus 
is  presented  visually  but  is  changed  by  the  subject 
into  other  images. 

Although  the  quest  for  a  purely  objective  test  of 
the  image  has  not  as  yet  met  with  success,  still,  there 
are  various  exercises  which  tend  to  throw  into  relief, 
some  one,  some  another  sort  of  image.  The  group 
just  described  does,  on  the  whole,  emphasize  the  visual 
image.  Another  test,  also  proposed  by  Fernald,  in 
which  the  subject  is  asked  to  write  down  a  list  of 
words  rhyming  with  a  given  word,  seems  to  demand 
some  use  of  auditory  imagery.     The  ability  to  write 


IMAGINATION 


137 


a  long  list  of  rhyming  words  depends  also  upon 
vocabulary,  but  the  realization  that  two  words  do 
rhyme,  especially  if  they  are  spelled  diversely,  as 
rough  and  gruff,  seems  to  call  for  the  image  of  their 
sound. 

A  device  which  brings  into  prominence,  for  some 
subjects,  kinesthetic  imagery  of  the  grapho-motor 
sort,  is  the  attempt  to  write  in  various  reversals  of 
the  normal  direction.  Thus  in  Fig.  15  the  second 
quadrant    shows    mirror-writing,    the    third    shows 


v)^unLv7 


yyyzi/p^vnj 


V[jcJ^^^ 


|r<S^^2[\M^ 


Fig.  15. 

the  writing  wrong  side  up,  and  the  fourth  shows  it 
as  if  wrong  side  up  and  in  the  mirror.  The  subjects 
who  do  this  with  facility  report,  so  far  as  my  experi- 
ence with  the  device  goes,  that  it  throws  into  promi- 
nence their  muscular  imagery. 


138  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

A  word  should  be  added  about  the  use  of  memory 
tests  to  determine  the  type  of  imagery.  Some  in- 
vestigators have  assumed  that  if  the  material  pre- 
sented through  the  eye  is  better  retained  than  that 
presented  otherwise,  the  subject  is  visual  in  type,  and 
uses  visual  imagery  for  this  retention.  But,  as  we 
have  said,  the  sensory  quality  of  the  original  im- 
pression is  no  guarantee  of  the  character  of  the  image 
by  which  it  is  remembered. 

Children's  Imagery. — Relative  to  the  frequency 
of  the  different  kinds  of  imagery  among  children, 
Colvin  ^^  says :  "  The  child  up  to  ten,  at  least,  is  pre- 
dominantly a  visualizer.  Concrete  visual,  and  prob- 
ably all  concrete  imagery,  tends  to  fall  off  in  the  more 
advanced  grades,  its  place  being  taken  by  verbal 
imagery.  There  is  a  great  loss  in  vividness  in  con- 
crete imagery  in  the  higher  grades  of  the  common 
schools."  A  similar  view  is  expressed  by  Rusk,'^ 
who  particularly  speaks  of  vividness.  ^'So  vivid,  in- 
deed, may  be  the  imagery  in  some  instances  that 
whatever  is  in  the  field  of  perception  against  which 
the  image  is  projected  is  obliterated.  The  child's 
imagery  has  in  a  high  degree  the  characteristics  of 
direct  perception,  and  it  is  doubtless  for  this  reason 
that  the  child  readily  confuses  the  two  spheres,  which 
for  the  adult  are  quite  distinct."  The  comments  of 
both  these  writers  apply  principally  to  concrete  or 
illustrative  images.     In  the  spelKng  test  cited  above 


IMAGINATION  139 

I  found  that  ehildren  used  less  visual  imagery  than 
did  the  adults.  This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that 
language  is  first  experienced  by  children  as  a  system 
of  auditory  and  articulatory  images. 

The  Theory  of  the  Image. — The  image  is  a  tool 
iu  our  mental  equipment.  It  is  often  h(  Ipf  ul,  some- 
times indispensable,  in  the  adjustment  of  the  organ- 
ism to  environment.  The  visual  image  has  some  of 
the  uses  that  a  small  portable  map  or  diagram  ful- 
fils, besides  the  advantage  of  working  in  the  dark. 
The  auditory  image  may  replace  the  actual  sound, 
as  when  a  musician  hears  his  melodies  without  the 
use  of  an  instrument.  The  image  may  be  the  source 
of  emotional  control;  one  girl  says  that  when  she 
wants  to  laugh  in  church,  she  calls  up  the  image  of  a 
sad-faced  picture,  and  this  saves  her.  For  many  per- 
sons the  image  is  so  common  an  article  of  daily  use 
that  it  is  superfluous  to  argue,  to  them,  that  it  has  a 
reason  for  being.  The  image  is  not,  however,  always 
in  the  foreground  of  consciousness.  In  the  perform- 
ance of  habitual  or  routine  tasks  all  higher  conscious 
direction  tends  to  fall  away,  imagery  along  with  the 
rest.  Then,  too,  where  adequate  perceptual  stimuli 
are  present,  the  imagined  stimuli,  if  they  exist  at  all, 
are  merged  into  the  actual  percept:  in  other  words, 
the  mind  does  not  re-present  to  itself  that  which  is 
still  present. 

It  has  been  said  that  imagery  tends  to  emerge 


140  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

into  consciousness  when  something  new  or  difficult 
has  'to  be  done.  From  the  experimental  literature 
on  imagery  we  quote  from  Fernald :  ''  That  we  have 
had  imagery  reported  for  each  of  the  tasks  by  each 
of  the  subjects  may  be  seen  by  reference  to  our  experi- 
mental data.  The  certainty  and  invariability  of  this 
response  increase  with  the  novelty  or  difficulty  of  the 
problem.  Moreover,  we  find  constant  reference  by 
the  subjects  to  the  fact  that  the  imagery  is  essential 
for  the  performance  of  the  task."  Even  from  Betts, 
who  is  inclined  to  question  the  functional  value  of 
the  image,  we  read  this :  "  The  testimony  was  quite 
general  that,  where  one  was  baffled  in  thinking  of  an 
opposite,  a  flood  of  imagery  would  appear,  usually 
all  of  it  being  irrelevant,  and  that  when  the  word 
finally  appeared  it  generally  came  in  a  flash  and  could 
not  be  accounted  for."  Finkenbinder  ^^  in  his  study 
of  the  remembrance  of  problems  gives  an  idea  of  the 
profusion  of  images  which  appeared  during  the  recall 
of  difficult  puzzles  and  arithmetical  examples.  He 
says  that- in  the  recollection  of  ten  such  problems  his 
subjects  used  approximately  two  hundred  thousand 
images  and  that  about  ninety  per  cent,  of  them  were 
visual. 

Now,  the  fact  that  some  observers  report  that  they 
are  able  to  carry  on  effective  thinking  without  any 
imagery  and  the  fact  that  often  when  imagery  is 
present  it  seems  to  be  useless  and  irrelevant,  and  the 


IMAGINATION  141 

further  fact  that  images  sometimes  appear  only  after 
the  solution  of  a  question,  not  before,  have  lent  some 
plausibility  to  the  idea  that  imagery  may  be  not  only 
an  unnecessary  element  in  mental  economy,  but  even 
an  obsolescent  or  vestigial  one.  Other  points  which 
support  this  idea  are  the  relative  decrease  of  imagery 
witli  advancing  maturity,  and  the  relative  sparseness 
of  imagery,  upon  Galton's  evidence,  among  men  of 
high  scientific  achievement. 

Commenting  upon  the  first  point  in  the  preceding 
paragraph,  we  may  say  that  where  practiced  observers 
report  that  no  imagery  is  present  in  their  thoughts 
we  must  accept  their  testimony.  But  since,  in  peda- 
gogical matters,  we  have  no  choice  but  to  act  upon 
the  experience  of  the  majority,  we  must  assume  that 
usually  a  visual  image  is  distinctly  useful  in  the 
solving  of  difficulties,  and  that  other  kinds  of  images 
may  be  similarly  valuable.  Concerning  the  irrele- 
vance of  imagery,  it  is  probably  fair  to  say  that  much 
of  it  is  useless,  just  as  it  is  fair  to  say  that  many  of 
our  memories  are  of  no  special  account,  and  much  of 
our  reasoning  is  without  discernible  result ;  but  this 
is  quite  different  from  saying  that  none  of  it  is  useful. 
Trial  and  error,  as  we  have  seen,  are  present  in  every 
mental  undertaking.  Whenever  a  choice  of  reactions 
is  made,  i.e.,  whenever  one  set  of  images  is  dismissed 
in  favor  of  another  set,  the  judgTiient  of  more  and 
less  relevant  has  been  made,  and  there  can  be  no 


142  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

choice  without  something  to  choose  from.  Besides, 
the  work  of  the  Freudian  school  has  given  notable 
illustrations  of  the  principle  that  images  supposed 
by  the  subject  to  be  irrelevant  may,  upon  analysis, 
prove  to  be  more  relevant  than  he  had  thought. 

Turning  now  to  the  fact  that  there  seems  to  be  less 
use  of  concrete  and  vivid  imagery  as  the  child  comes 
to  maturity,  let  us  ask :  Does  this  fact  mean  that  the 
function  of  the  image  is  declining  in  importance? 
If  images  are  useful  in  proportion  to  their  detailed 
likeness  to  the  perceptions  from  which  they  come, 
then  loss  of  vividness  or  detail  means  loss  of  func- 
tion. But  the  function  of  the  image  is  to  represent, 
not  to  reinstate  reality,  and  for  purposes  of  repre- 
sentation it  is  just  as  necessary  to  leave  some  details 
out  as  it  is  to  leave  others  in.  Hence  thinking  in 
verbal  images  has  the  same  advantage  over  concrete 
picture-thinking  which  symbolic  writing  has  over 
picture-writing.  There  are  some  occasions,  doubtless, 
when  the  clearness  and  vividness  of  the  image  is  im- 
portant, occasions,  that  is,  on  which  the  presence  of 
the  percept  would  be  even  better ;  but  these  are  by  no 
means  the  only  occasions  for  the  use  of  imagery,  nor 
can  we  say  that  they  are  the  most  frequent.  It  would 
often  be  a  matter  of  the  gravest  inconvenience  if  our 
images  were  as  real  as  percepts,  if  their  vividness 
and  detail  made  it  impossible  to  tell  what  was  ob- 
jective and  what  subjective.     It  is  safe  to  say  that 


IMAGINATION  143 

the  schematic  images  are  the  most  serviceable.  But 
it  is  not  logical  to  go  to  the  length  of  saying  that  if 
a  reduced  image  is  better  than  a  lifelike  one,  no 
image  at  all  would  be  better  yet.  This  is  buying  two 
stoves  to  save  all  the  coal.  Betts  found  no  correla- 
tion between  clearness  and  vividness  of  concrete 
imagery  in  his  subjects  and  their  intellectual  rank. 
Washburn  found  no  correlation  between  the  accurate 
reproduction  of  a  visual  image  and  the  ability  to 
manipulate  or  control  visual  images.  It  is  consistent 
with  both  these  findings  to  conclude  that  the  chief 
function  of  the  image  is  to  keep  before  the  mind  only 
a  few  elements  of  the  objects  or  events  with  which 
the  mind  is  dealing.  The  facile  handling  of  images, 
and  intelligent  action  generally,  is  favored  by  some 
withdrawal  from  richly  detailed  concrete  imagery, 
just  as  it  is  favored  by  occasional  withdrawal  from 
perceptual  impressions  themselves. 

Can  Imagery  be  Cultivated? — Galton's  opinion 
that  imagery  can  and  should  be  improved  by  school 
exercises  has  been  seconded  by  several  writers.  Tal- 
bot,^* as  a  result  of  trying  to  train  her  own  visual 
imagery,  says :  "  I  am  not  conscious  of  visualizing 
any  better  than  formerly,  i.e.,  with  any  more  detail — 
but  I  am  conscious  of  visualizing  more  frequently/' 
The  results  of  a  more  recent  set  of  observations  by 
Foster  ^^  show  that,  in  the  case  of  his  subjects,  neither 
the  ability  nor  the  disposition  to  visualize  was  in- 


144  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

creased  by  practice.  He  put  before  his  three  observ- 
ers various  real  objects,  pictures  and  nonsense  draw- 
ings, and  then  called  for  a  reproduction  of  them  in 
drawing.  He  found  that  the  ability  to  reproduce 
these  visual  impressions  increased  watli  practice, 
though  the  tendency  to  visualize  did  not.  The  best 
reproducer  of  visual  impressions  was  the  poorest 
visualizer,  and  relied  almost  wholly  upon  verbal  cues 
for  recall.  The  reasons  assigned  for  this  improve- 
ment in  doing  the  task  are :  increasing  familiarity 
with  the  general  type  of  material  used,  systematic 
application  of  attention,  and  the  development  of  cer- 
tain ways  of  naming,  grouping,  and  counting  the 
objects.  Should  further  inquiry  confirm  Foster's 
results,  then,  instead  of  saying  that  such  an  exercise 
improves  imagery,  we  should  say  that  it  improves  the 
ability  to  attend  to,  to  retain,  and  to  reproduce  visual 
experience.  This  is  quite  as  important  as  to  improve 
the  image  itself. 

The  question  of  the  so-called  "multiple-sense- 
appeal  "  in  school  teaching  is  one  which  is  connected 
with  this  imagery  question.  Shall  the  reading  les- 
son, the  arithmetic  lesson,  and  the  geography  lesson 
be  administered  to  the  child  through  one  sense,  a 
few  senses,  or  all  senses?  A  middle  course  is  best. 
Our  knowledge  of  individual  differences  warns  us 
that  if  only  one  sensory  field  is  touched  some  children 
will  be  handicapped.     Fernald's  results   show  that 


IMAGINATION  145 

those  subjects  got  on  best  who  changed  readily  from 
one  kind  of  imagery  to  another,  or  M'ho  could  bring 
several  kinds  to  bear  upon  their  task.  Somewhere 
in  the  school  program  there  should  be  chances  for  en- 
couraging and  emphasizing  the  use  of  any  and  every 
kind  of  image.  On  the  other  hand,  it  would  cer- 
tainly be  wasteful  and  distracting  to  make  every 
school  exercise  the  occasion  for  summoning  up  every 
variety  of  image.  The  life  of  Helen  Keller  is  proof 
of  what  is  possible  with  restricted  imagery.  The 
image,  though  it  has  its  use,  is  by  no  means  the  w^hole 
of  the  thinking  process,  and  to  force  it  in  where  it  is 
not  needed  only  makes  confusion. 

Creative  Imagination. — In  no  image,  except  it  be 
an  hallucination,  is  there  a  complete  similarity  to  the 
percept.  Yet  there  are  directions  in  which  imagi- 
nation is  absolutely  limited  by  experience.  It  is 
commonly  agreed  that  no  one  can  imagine  new  sen- 
sory elements,  or  frame  the  idea  of  an  emotion  which 
he  has  never  felt.  It  is  no  less  true  that  there  are 
combinations  of  elements  which  are  so  foreign  to  cer- 
tain minds  that  they  will  never  be  made.  A  literary 
expression  of  this  fact  occurs  in  Dunsany's  play 
"  King  Argimenes,"  where  the  slave  who  had  once 
been  a  king  and  the  slave  who  had  always  been  a 
slave  hold  this  dialogue : 

King  Argimenes: — "  If  I  had  a  sword  would  they  follow 
me?    A  beautiful  huge  sword  of  bronze." 


146  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Zarh : — "  I  wish  I  could  think  of  things  like  that.  It  is 
because  you  were  once  a  king  that  you  can  think  of  a 
sword  of  bronze.  I  tried  to  hope  once  that  I  should  some 
day  fight  the  guards,  but  I  couldn't  picture  a  sword,  I 
couldn't  imagine  it ;  I  could  only  picture  whips." 

In  Koyce's  ^'^  experiment  on  invention,  where  the 
subject  is  asked  to  draw  a  series  of  designs  each  as 
different  as  possible  from  the  preceding  one,  it  ap- 
pears that  a  discernible  individual  style  runs  through 
the  whole  series.  In  spite  of  his  efforts  to  the  con- 
trary the  subject  does  imitate  himself.  Again,  when 
the  experimenter  holds  up,  one  by  one,  a  set  of  models, 
and  directs  the  subject  to  draw,  in  each  case,  some- 
thing as  different  as  he  can  from  the  model,  the  sub- 
ject, all  the  while  struggling  to  escape  from  and  defy 
the  pattern,  will  yet  follow  it  in  some  particulars.  It 
seems  to  be  the  rule  that  one  can  vary  only  a  few 
items  at  a  time.  When  an  artist  tries  to  break  with 
tradition,  he  may  suppose  himself  to  be  revolutionary, 
but  the  historian  who  looks  back  on  his  period  will  see 
many  similarities  between  his  work  and  that  of  his 
predecessors.  New  styles  are,  on  the  whole,  not  sud- 
den, but  gradual  evolutions  from  older  forms. 

Creative  imagination  is  closely  related  to  invention 
and  to  apperception.  The  ink-blot  test,  which  is 
offered  by  Dearborn  "  as  a  test  of  imagination,  is  used 
by  Starch  ^^  to  illustrate  apperception.  The  subject 
inspects  a  set  of  irregular  ink-blots  and  tells  what 
they  make  him  think  of,  or  what  he  "  sees  in  them." 


IMAGINATION  147 

We  may  generalize  this  idea  and  say  that  the  person 
Avho  "  sees  things  "  in  his  surroundings,  or  in  his  own 
images,  is  he  who  has  creativ(^  imagination.  This 
comparison  and  union  of  images,  tlie  ai)plieation  of 
one  to  another,  is  the  essential  act  of  imagination. 

As  a  test  of  the  capacity  to  combine  images  I  tried 
the  following  with  a  group  of  eleven  students.  A  list 
of  twenty  words,  names  of  common  objects  which  are 
rather  rich  in  associations,  was  presented  to  each  sub- 
ject, with  the  instructions  to  combine  them,  any  two 
at  a  time,  into  as  many  metaphors  or  similes  as  pos- 
sible. Half  an  hour  wns  allowed.  The  list  of  words 
was:  Air,  bell,  Bible,  bird,  bread,  carpet,  child,  city, 
coin,  dog,  eye,  fire,  fish,  fruit,  grass,  home,  judge, 
light,  lion,  man,  mother,  pen,  pillow,  servant,  ship, 
star,  stone,  tongue,  tree,  water.  The  number  of  meta- 
phors produced  by  this  group  ranged  from  seven  to 
twenty-seven  with  a  median  of  twelve,  and,  on  the 
whole,  those  who  wrote  many  also  wrote  metaphors  of 
better  quality. 

Concerning  imagination  in  young  children,  Sully  ^^ 
writes:  "  A  child's  feeling  for  likeness  is  commonly 
keen  and  subtle,  and  knowledge  of  the  real  relations  of 
things  has  not  yet  come  to  clieek  the  impulse  to  this 
free,  far-ranging  kind  of  assimilation."  Sometimes  a 
child  seems  imaginative,  as  he  compares  widely  dis- 
similar things,  when  he  is  merely  ignorant  of  dif- 
ferences.   He  lacks  discrimination  and  his  metaphors 


148  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

are  genuine  confusions.  Thus  the  animism  of  child- 
hood may  be  a  matter  of  prosaic  belief  rather  than 
poetic  fancy.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  abun- 
dance of  real  imaginative  activity  in  children's  plays. 
All  their  quaint,  original  make-believe  is  an  exercise 
of  inventive  power.  They  have  a  special  liking  for 
dramatic  impersonations,  of  animals,  fairies,  pirates, 
etc.  Colvin  says  that  "  Mimetic  images  are  the  deep- 
est and  most  subtle  things  in  our  thinking."  The 
school  should  recognize  that  motor  imagery  of  this 
dramatic  sort  is  a  means  to  the  imaginative  grasp 
of  our  surroundings. 


CHAPTER  IX 
OBSERVATION  AND  REPORT 

Perception  is  the  Union  of  Sensation  with  Imagi- 
nation.— Every  percept  is  the  grasping  of  some 
present  sense-object  in  terms  of  past  experience. 
What  we  know  about  similar  things  forms  a  subtle 
bias  with  regard  to  every  new  thing.  To  recognize 
this  fact  in  our  own  case,  and  to  separate  what  we 
see  from  what  we  contribute  to  the  seeing,  i.e.,  to 
know  the  objective  from  the  subjective,  is  a  power 
which  comes  of  long  and  hard  training. 

To  appreciate  this  distinction  there  must  be  some 
consciousness  of  self,  since  one  can  scarcely  regard 
an  experience  as  "  merely  subjective  "  without  some 
idea  of  what  a  subject  or  person  is.  Hence  we  can 
be  sure  that  in  very  young  children  there  will  be  no 
criterion  of  the  extent  to  which  past  experience,  or 
the  self,  is  coloring  the  presented  object.  It  is  often 
said  that  in  sketching  the  child  and  the  untaught 
adult  draw  what  they  know  about  an  object,  not  what 
they  see.  They  cannot  separate  their  preconceived 
idea  from  the  actual  impression  on  the  retina.     I 

149 


150  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

have  found  that  ten-year-old  children,  when  they  are 
drawing  from  a  model,  can  hardly  be  induced  to  pay 
any  attention  to  the  thing  they  are  copying.  If  they 
are  urged  to  look,  they  cast  a  hasty  glance  at  it  and 
return  immediately  to  the  real  business  of  the  mo- 
ment, namely,  their  own  drawing.  They  finish  in 
two  minutes  where  an  adult  would  take  twenty.  Cer- 
tain kinds  of  mistakes  are  mentioned  below  in  the 
discussion  of  drawing. 

Testimony  and  Report. — Children's  capacity  for 
observation  has  been  a  subject  of  pedagogical  thought 
ever  since  Pestalozzi  set  the  children  in  his  school 
at  observing  and  describing  the  cracks  in  the  floor  and 
the  torn  paper  on  the  walls.  For  the  child  to  recount 
what  he  has  seen  and  heard  is  a  large  part  of  the  daily 
program  in  many  schools.  The  closer  scrutiny  of  this 
process  and  exact  records  of  it  are  matters  of  more 
recent  psychological  study.  Stern  ^^  believes  that  it  is 
possible  to  show  four  chief  stages  in  the  child's  per- 
ceptual development.  First,  a  substance  stage,  last- 
ing up  to  the  eighth  year,  in  which  children,  when 
describing  a  scene,  enumerate  objects  and  persons 
without  reference  to  arrangement,  as  if  they  were  iso- 
lated and  disconnected  items.  Second,  there  is  the 
action  stage,  from  about  the  eighth  year  on,  in  which 
movement  and  action  are  especially  noted.  Third  is 
a  relation  stage,  beginning  about  the  ninth  year,  in 
which  connections  of  time,  place,  and  causal  sequence 


OBSERVATION  AND  REPORT  151 

are   observed.      And   fourth,    comes    the   qualitative 
stage,  ill  which,  among  other  things,  colors  are  better 
observed  than  in  the  preceding  periods.      Winch  ^^^ 
however,  in  a  recent  careful  study  of  children's  re- 
ports on  a  picture,  writes  as  follows :  "  So  far  as  the 
observation  of  simple  activities  are  concerned,  it  is 
extremely  doubtful  whether,  during  school  life,  there 
is  any  evolution  at  all."     His  tables  show  that,  for 
the  p'cture  which  he  used,  the  observation  of  activities 
was  more  pronounced  with  the  littlest  children,  i.e., 
those  of  three  or  four  years,  than  was  the  observation 
of  things.     Winch  found  among  these  youngest  chil- 
dren several   whom    he   designates    as    of   the   pure 
enumerator  type,  corresponding  to  Stern's  first  stage. 
His  results  as  to  color  and  number  are  in  accord  with 
Stern,  i.e.,  that  young  children  do  not  spontaneously 
note  and  report  upon  color  and  number. 

Among  further  points  of  interest  in  Winch's  study 
we  may  quote :  ''  It  seems  that  the  capacity  to  observe 
and  report  grows  rapidly  from  the  age  of  three  up  to 
the  age  of  six  or  seven  and  then  suffers  a  check.  ..." 
After  the  children  had  reported  upon  the  picture, 
and  had  answered  questions  on  it,  a  self-correction 
was  called  for,  in  which  the  picture  was  shown  again 
and  the  children  asked  to  tell  what  errors  they  had 
made.  The  smallest  children  did  not  make  a  single 
correction,  but  with  increasing  maturity  there  is  a 
gradual  increase  in  this  power  of  self-correction. 


152  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Reproduction  of  Colored  Chart. — To  a  group  of 
fourteen  girls,  eleven  years  of  age,  I  showed  a  chart 
containing  a  series  of  simple  pictures.  Each  child 
had  been  supplied  with  a  paint-box  and  a  sheet  of 
paper.  They  were  told  that  they  might  look  for  one 
minute  at  the  chart  and  then  see  how  much  of  it  they 
could  paint  from  memory  as  soon  as  it  was  taken 
away.  There  were  ten  objects  represented  on  the 
chart :  a  shield,  box,  star,  triangle,  cross,  crescent, 
ring,  clover-leaf,  candle,  and  flag.  The  children  were 
allowed  half  an  hour  to  finish  their  paintings.  These 
were  then  collected,  and  the  original  chart  was  sho^vn 
for  half  a  minute,  so  that  the  last  impression  for 
that  day  was  a  correct  one.  A  week  later,  without 
warning,  another  reproduction  of  the  chart  was  called 
for.  This  same  test  was  also  given  to  twelve  women 
whose  average  age  was  about  twenty-one.  A  study 
of  the  errors  made  by  the  two  groups  gives  the  median 
of  the  number  of  mistakes  as  3.5,  p.e.  1.5  for  the 
adults,  and  5,  p.e.  2  for  the  children.  There  is  a 
marked  tendency  in  both  groups  to  repeat  mistakes 
once  made,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  second  view  of 
the  chart  had  been  permitted  after  the  first  reproduc- 
tion had  taken  place.  This  illustrates  an  important 
pedagogical  fact,  namely,  that  we  tend  to  remember 
an  experience  in  terms  of  our  own  expression  of  it. 
Out  of  the  total  number  of  mistakes  made  by  the 
older  group  on  the  first  trial  50  per  cent,  were  cor- 


OBSERVATION  AND  REPORT  153 

rooted  on  the  seoond  trial,  45  per  cent,  were  repeated, 
and  new  errors  were  made  to  the  extent  of  40  per 
cent.  Of  the  oliiklrcn's  total  errors  on  the  first  trial 
41  per  cent,  were  corrected,  43  per  cent,  were  re- 
peated, and  new  errors  amounting  to  33  per  cent, 
were  made.  It  might  seem  at  first  glance  that  a  mis- 
take must  be  either  corrected  or  repeated  at  the  sec- 
ond trial,  but  this  need  not  be.  The  blue  cross  was 
given  by  one  person  as  green  on  the  first  trial,  and  as 
orange  on  the  second,  and  this  is  neither  a  repetition 
of  the  first  error  nor  a  correction  of  it.  Again,  one 
makes  a  mistake  on  the  shield  in  the  first  trial,  and 
omits  the  shield  entirely  on  the  second.  The  number 
of  subjects  is  too  small  to  give  the  results  any  final 
validity,  but  the  test  points  to  the  probability  that 
the  tendency  to  repeat  errors  is  about  as  strong  with 
adults  as  with  children,  though  there  is  a  somewhat 
greater  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  adults  to  cor- 
rect errors.  If  this  statement  sounds  contradictory, 
we  may  express  the  point  by  saying  that  the  adult 
will  cither  repeat  or  correct  an  error,  whereas  the 
child  will  tend  either  to  repeat  a  former  error  or  to 
let  it  alone,  i.e.,  he  has  less  disposition  to  "  make  it 
right." 

Suggestibility. — That  the  sensory  experiences  of 
children  are  overlaid  by  their  own  images  has  already 
been  said ;  it  amounts  to  a  kind  of  auto-suggestion, 
and   indicates  the  lack  of  critical  resistance.     Sug- 


154,  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

gestibilitj,  in  general,  is  a  readiness  to  believe  in  or 
to  act  upon  a  stimulus  just  because  it  is  present.  It 
shows  feeble  inhibition.  Some  measure  of  suggesti- 
bility is,  of  course,  normal,  and  is  necessary  for 
flexibility  and  fineness  of  understanding;  the  person 
who  lacks  it  is  apt  to  be  mentally  stiff  and  emotionally 
obtuse.  Hence  this  trait  is  one  to  be  safeguarded, 
not  eliminated. 

The  sense  illusions  mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter 
are  something  like  suggestion,  though  in  those  cases 
a  physical  stimulus  Avas  present,  and  its  misinter- 
pretation was  based  in  part  upon  the  physiological 
process  itself.  In  the  forms  of  misinterpretation  now 
to  be  noticed  the  mistake  is  of  a  more  ideal  sort. 
Guidi,^°°  an  Italian  investigator,  had  his  subjects  put 
their  fingers  inside  a  box  into  which  he  set  a  lamp. 
They  were  asked  to  give  a  signal  as  soon  as  they  felt 
the  warmth  of  the  flame.  The  flame,  however,  was 
extinguished  without  the  subject's  knowledge,  so  that 
there  was  no  physical  basis  for  a  sensation  of  warmth. 
He  found  that,  of  six-year-old  children,  50  per  cent, 
said  that  they  felt  the  flame.  The  percentage  of 
suggestible  children  rose  to  62.5  for  nine-year-olds, 
dropped  to  21.-i  for  the  thirteen-year-olds,  and  then 
rose  to  33.3  for  those  of  fifteen.  It  is  interesting  to 
compare  this  result  with  that  of  Gilbert  on  the  size- 
weight  illusion,  where  he,  too,  finds  nine-year-old 
children  to  be   most   subject   to   illusion.      Small  ^"^ 


OBSERVATION  AND  REPORT  155 

tested  children  by  bringing-  into  the  school-room  bot- 
tles supposed  to  contain  perfume.  The  teacher  talked 
about  the  perfume,  and  then  sprayed  distilled  "water 
into  the  room  and  asked  the  children  to  raise  their 
hands  as  soon  as  they  were  able  to  distinguish  the 
scent.  Ninety-eight  per  cent,  of  the  first-grade  chil- 
dren succumbed  to  the  suggestion,  and  the  percentage 
steadily  decreased  from  class  to  class.  It  is  hard  to 
tell  in  tests  of  this  kind  whether  the  child  has  really 
had  a  sensory  hallucination,  or  whether  the  sugges- 
tion has  merely  been  one  of  saying  the  expected  thing 
to  the  experimenter.  When  other  children  are  hold- 
ing up  their  hands,  and  the  teacher  seems  to  be  wait- 
ing for  him  to  do  the  same,  it  is  easy  for  a  child  to 
comply  with  this  expectation  without  examining  his 
own  sensations   at   all. 

Those  who  have  worked  with  children  in  tests  upon 
report  and  testimony  agree  that  the  child  is  a  more 
suggestible  witness  than  is  the  adult.  Children  are 
more  subject  to  personal  influence,  and  hence  more 
likely  to  show  the  effect  of  leading  questions,  and 
they  are  more  ready  to  swear  to  the  accuracy  of 
their  own  testimony. 


CHAPTEE  X 
MEMOKY 

Nature  and  Function  of  Memory. — Like  imagina- 
tion, memory  is  the  r:^petition  in  idea  of  past  experi- 
ence. Memory,  indeed,  is  but  a  special  form  of  imagi- 
nation, in  that  it  adds  to  the  revival  of  the  former 
impression  the  fact  of  recogiiition  and  of  personal 
ownership.  In  remembering,  I  know  that  I  am 
thinking  of  something  which  was  a  part  of  my  own 
past.  This  power  of  placing  an  image  in  its  original 
context,  and  of  referring  it  to  a  definite  date,  gives 
to  this  image  a  logical  status  and  a  value  which  are 
wanting  to  imagination  alone.  The  thing  remem- 
bered is  treated  as  fact;  it  is  supposed  to  hold  good 
of  reality.  The  past  and  the  future  are  systems  of 
ideas  which  undergo  reconstruction  at  our  hands :  the 
reconstructions  of  the  future  we  call  our  plans  or 
purposes;  the  reconstructions  of  the  past  we  call 
findings  or  discoveries.  The  past  we  think  of  as 
"  having  really  happened,"  as  objective,  Avhereas  the 
future  is  subjective,  it  is  our  project.  There  is  rea- 
son to  believe,  as  e.g.  Hitchcock  ^°^  argues,  that  the 
forward-looking  mental   attitude  is  more  primitive 

156 


MEMORY  157 

than  the  backward-looking  habit.  Just  as  the  age  of 
the  prophet  precedes  the  age  of  the  historian,  so  with 
the  individual  it  is  characteristic  to  dream  of  the 
future  long  before  one  takes  an  interest  in  the  past. 
Finally,  however,  both  the  individual  and  the  race 
come  to  see  that  memorial  records  are  the  only  safe 
basis  for  prophecy.  Memory  is  to  the  individual  what 
history  is  to  a  people,  the  only  means  of  scientific 
self-knowledge.  Our  realization  of  personal  identity 
depends  upon  memory. 

Memory  and  Association. — All  experience,  we  con- 
ceive, leaves  traces  in  the  nervous  system,  and  these 
traces  are  the  basis  of  the  recall  of  the  experience 
into  consciousness.  Physiologically,  the  thing  is 
never  quite  lost  unless  the  nerve  substance  itself  suf- 
fers degeneration  or  other  injury.  Psychologically, 
the  case  is  different ;  for  the  experience  may  or  may 
not  come  again  within  the  limits  of  conscious  life. 
Some  circumstances  work  for  such  revival,  some 
against  it.  How  does  an  impression  once  gone  ever 
come  back?  And  if  one  comes  back  why  not  all? 
The  association  theory,  as  once  held,  maintained  that 
nothing  ever  did  come  back  except  by  virtue  of  asso- 
ciations or  connections  which  w^re  made  at  the  time 
of  the  original  experience.  Consciousness,  as  it  were, 
could  never  recover  a  past  impression  unless  it  had 
held  on  to  a  string  to  pull  it  up  by.  This  conception 
is  valid  in  many  cases,  for  it  does  often  happen  that 


158  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

when  two  things  have  been  jDerceived  together,  and 
one  of  them  is  thereafter  perceived  singly,  it  calls  to 
mind  its  early  associate.  This  occurs  so  often  that  it 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  is  alwa^'S  present 
a  tendency  for  the  one  to  recall  the  other.  But  there 
is  a  difference  between  saying  that  associations  once 
formed  tend  to  persist  and  saying  that  there  is  no 
other  way  for  the  past  to  be  revived.  Several  writers 
have  shown,  and  casual  observation  confirms,  that 
old  impressions  may  be  recalled  without  our  being 
conscious  of  any  series  of  links.  Introspection,  in 
other  words,  does  not  always  reveal  the  modulations 
by  which  we  shifted  from  a  present  group  of  stimuli 
to  the  memories  which  suddenly  we  find  ourselves 
entertaining.  It  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  not  al- 
ways by  a  succession  of  traceable  links  that  we  recover 
the  old.  Certain  experiences  or  ideas  are  said  to 
be  "  free-rising  "  or  "  perservative  " ;  they  recur  to 
the  mind  over  and  over,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they 
appear  to  be  irrelevant,  and  unconnected  with  any 
perceptual  experience  upon  which  the  subject  is  then 
engaged.  They  are  like  irruptions  from  a  lower 
level,  which  break  through  the  superficial  layers  of 
conscious  association.  In  order  to  account  for  this 
kind  of  occurrence  the  association  theory  would  have 
to  assume  that  tlie  mind  is  not  composed  of  a  single 
series  of  experiences  in  a  fixed  serial  order,  but  is  a 
complex  of  different  levels  or  centers  of  association. 


MEMORY  159 

The  facts  of  abnormal  ps_vcliol()o;_v  show  that  these 
groups  of  associations  may  operate  in  almost  com- 
plete independence  of  one  another,  giving  rise  to 
multiple  personalities.  In  these  "  personalities  "  and 
in  other  amnesias  some  bit  of  experience  becomes 
islanded  from  the  rest.  These  facts  lead  back  to  the 
question  whether  such  parts  of  experience  ever  are  re- 
membered except  through  the  final  unearthing  of  some 
association,  such  as  the  psychoanalyst  finds.  It  is 
hard  to  imagine  how  a  completely  isolated  impression 
could  come  back,  and  harder  yet  to  understand  how 
it  could  be  recognized.  It  is  possible  that  many  of 
the  impressions  of  childhood  are  lost  because  of  the 
lack  of  associative  organization  in  the  child's  mind. 
As  we  know,  the  feeling  of  personal  identity  is  not 
strong  in  early  childhood,  hence  young  children  prob- 
ably do  not,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  remember. 
Factors  Favoring  Recall.  Original  Plasticity. — 
The  practical  question  for  the  student  is:  What  cir- 
cumstances are  favorable  and  what  are  inimical  to 
retention  and  recall.  The  first  and  most  obvious  of 
these  conditions  is  the  plasticity  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. That  memory  is  best  which  is  sensitive  to  an 
impression  when  new,  and  tenacious  of  it  when  old. 
Some  of  this  sensitivity  and  tenacity,  we  cannot  say 
just  how  much,  is  due  to  heredity,  and  it  is  generally 
thought  that  this  original  endo^\nnent  cannot  be 
greatly  altered  by  training.     Individual  differences 


160  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

in  this  capacity  are  very  striking.     It  is  a  matter  of 
some  interest  to  know  whether  these  two  aspects  of 
a  good  memory  bear  any  constant  relation  to  one 
another;   whether,   that  is,  the  person  who  readily 
takes  on  new  impressions  is  likely  to  be  the  one  who 
retains  them  well.    In  a  test  reported  by  Bingham  ^°^ 
this  point  was  investigated  by  having  a  class  learn  for 
so  many  days  the  words  of  a  German  vocabulary  and 
the  English  equivalents,  and  by  testing  the  retention 
of  these  words  at  various  times  thereafter.    The  exist- 
ence of  several  memory  types  emerged  in  this  test; 
there  was  the  person  who  learned  easily  and  retained 
a  high  percentage  of  what  he  learned,  the  person  who 
learned  easily  and  as  easily  forgot,  the  person  who 
learned  little  but  retained  most  of  it,  and  the  unlucky 
last  who  learned  little  and  remembered  but  a  small 
part  of  that.    I  repeated  this  test  with  a  group  of  five 
young  women,  making  some  changes  in  the  method. 
Typewritten  slips  were  given  to  these  students  con- 
taining alphabetical  lists  of  Italian  words  with  their 
English  equivalents.     The  following  rules  were  ob- 
served in  selecting  the  words  for  the  lists:  All  the 
words  were  nouns;  they  were  limited  in  length  to 
two  or  three   syllables;   were  translatable  by  some 
single  English  word ;  and  were  not  similar  in  form  to 
the  English  equivalents.    The  subjects  were  asked  to 
learn  as  many  of  the  words  as  possible,  using  ten- 
minute  study  periods  on  eight  successive  days.     At 


MEMORY  161 

the  end  of  each  studv  period  they  were  to  cover  the 
English  Avords  and  write  down  the  meanings  of  as 
many  of  the  Italian  words  as  they  could  remember. 
The  sum  of  the  groups  of  words  so  learned  by  each 
subject  is  called  the  total  number  learned  by  her. 
The  learning  was  carried  on  for  eight  days.  After 
an  interval  of  three  days  lists  of  all  the  Italian 
words,  but  not  in  their  original  order,  were  given  out, 
and  the  subjects  wrote  down  as  many  of  the  meanings 
as  they  could.  Three  weeks  later,  without  previous 
warning,  this  test  was  repeated.  The  results  are 
shown  in  Table  XII.     With  the  exception  of  the 


TABLE 

XII 

Sub- 

Total number 

Retained 

Retained 

ject 

words  learned 

Jan, 

.20. 

Feb.  10 

1 

1. 

426  words 

100% 

168 

word 

.s   3<).4% 

158 

words 

37.0% 

2. 

406 

100% 

138 

" 

33.9% 

138 

" 

33.9% 

3. 

365 

100% 

88 

" 

24.1% 

77 

" 

21.0% 

4. 

317*      " 

100% 

132 

" 

41.6% 

121 

a 

38.1% 

(362)      " 

100% 

(150) 

" 

41.6% 

(138) 

" 

38.1% 

5. 

278        " 

100% 

78 

" 

28% 

53 

it 

19% 

fourth  subject,  it  seems  that  the  ones  who  learned 
the  greatest  number  of  words  retained  the  highest 
percentage  at  the  last  trial.  Pyle  "'^  also  reports  that 
in  a  memory  test  made  by  him  the  rapid  learners 
showed  the  highest  degree  of  retention. 

*  This  subject  missed  one  day,  hence  the  number  317  is 
the  amount  learned  in  seven  days  time.  In  order  to  com- 
pare her  standing  with  that  of  the  group,  the  number  362 
may  be  used,  i.e.,  the  amoimt  which  she  would  have  learned 
in  "eight  days  had  she  kept  up  her  average  rate. 


162  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Aside  from  native  gifts,  there  are  several  factors 
which  are  favorable  to  the  making  and  keeping  of  a 
memory  impression,  and  it  is  with  these  that  the  edu- 
cator  can    work. 

Recency. — The  effect  of  recency  upon  memory  ma- 
terial may  be  illustrated  in  different  ways.  If  a 
series  of  numbers  or  words  is  read  to  us  we  are  apt 
to  remember  the  last  member  of  the  series  better 
than  most  of  those  which  precede  it.  We  remember 
this  morning's  breakfast  better  than  yesterday's,  as- 
suming all  breakfasts  to  be  equal.  When  one  takes 
into  consideration  the  span  of  a  lifetime,  however, 
there  is  an  apparent  departure  from  this  rule  of 
recency,  and  that  is  in  the  memories  of  the  aged.  It 
is  commonly  noticed  that  they  recall  more  effectively 
the  scenes  of  their  younger  years  than  those  more 
recently  lived  through.  Two  factors  are  probably 
operative  here ;  the  one  is  that  earlier  memories  have 
often  been  recalled  and  dwelt  upon,  and  hence  have 
been  frequently  rehearsed,  the  other  is  that  the  plas- 
ticity of  the  brain  substance  may  have  changed  in  the 
old. 

Another  way  of  stating  the  fact  about  recency  is 
to  show  the  rate  of  forgetting.  The  general  fact  that 
material  committed  to  memory  suffers  obliteration 
with  the  lapse  of  time  has  been  particularized  by 
Ebbinghaus  "^  into  a  law.  Forgetting  is  rapid  at 
first    and    then    slows    down   in    rate.     Ebbinghaus 


MEMORY  163 

learned  many  series  of  nonsense  syllables,  thirteen 
syllables  to  the  series,  and  after  various  intervals  of 
time  re-learned  them.    The  amount  forgotten  in  these 
intervals  was  thus  determined.     He  found  it  to  be, 
for  himself,  41.8  per  cent,  for  about  a  twenty-minute 
interval,  55.8  per  cent,  for  an  hour,  G4.2  per  cent, 
for  nine  hours,  66.3  per  cent,  for  a  day,  72.2  per  cent, 
for  two  days,  74.6  per  cent,  for  six  days,  and  78.9 
per  cent,  for  a  month.     The  results  of  Eadosavlje- 
vich  ^°^  show  a  loss  of  only  11  per  cent,  at  the  end  of 
twenty  minutes,  20  per  cent,  at  the  end  of  an  hour, 
53  per  cent,  at  the  end  of  eight  hours.     These  per- 
centages, therefore,  differ  much  with  individuals,  but 
the  general  law  holds,  that  forgetting  occurs  rapidly 
at  first,  then  more  slowly.     This  law  of  forgetting 
applies  to  material  which  has  been  completely  learned, 
but  there  is  a  tendency  which  works  directly  contrary 
to  this  law,  the  phenomenon  of  reminiscence,  which 
is  more  apparent  with  imperfectly  learned  material. 
Reminiscence  is  the  recollection,  at  a  later  time,  of 
items  which  could  not  be  remembered  immediately 
after  their  presentation  to  the  subject.     Ballard  ^^'^ 
has  made  a  study  of  this  phenomenon  in  adults  and 
in  children,  and  with  memory  materials  of  several 
sorts.     He  writes :  "  When  a  young  child  has  imper- 
fectly memorized  a  passage  of  poetry,  he  is,  as  a  rule, 
able  to  remember  more  of  it  after  the  lapse  of  a  few 
days  than  he  docs  immrdiately  after  learning.   .    .    . 


164  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

As  a  general  rule,  children  of  6  years  of  age  improve 
to  the  extent  of  50  to  60  per  cent,  in  two  days,  chil- 
dren of  12  improve  from  10  to  20  per  cent. :  subjects 
over  20  years  of  age  do  not  improve  at  all."  Bal- 
lard's tables  show  also  that  reminiscence  is  a  larger 
factor  with  some  kinds  of  material  than  with  others. 
His  subjects  memorized  the  following  kinds  of  ma- 
terial, and  showed  reminiscence  most  markedly  in 
the  order  given :  meanings  of  Latin  nouns,  nonsense 
poetry,  ballad  poetry,  diagrams,  nonsense  syllables, 
prose,  ideas.  That  is,  reminiscence  is  more  pro- 
nounced in  the  case  of  nonsense  material  and  ar- 
bitrary associations  than  it  is  with  logical  and 
significant  connections.  Reminiscence  is  not  only 
characteristic  of  children  as  contrasted  with  adults, 
but  it  is  more  prominent  in  the  mentally  defective 
than  in  the  normal. 

Frequency. — As  a  rule,  the  oftener  a  thing  is  re- 
peated the  more  firmly  does  it  become  fixed  in  mind, 
and  the  more  likely  is  it  to  be  recalled.  ISTot  all  repe- 
titions, however,  are  equally  useful.  Suppose  it  takes 
twelve  readings  to  commit  a  poem.  In  one  sense, 
each  of  those  readings  is  as  essential  as  another  to 
the  perfect  mastery  of  the  whole,  but  if  we  judge  by 
the  number  of  elements  which  are  secured  by  a  single 
repetition,  a  big  difference  appears.  The  first  ju'es- 
entation  gives  most,  as  Ebbinghaus  and  Pohlmann 
have  shown.     According  to  the  latter  the  second  pres- 


MEMORY  165 

eiitation  secures  about  -'34  per  cent,  as  inucli  as  the 
first,  and  the  third  about  10  per  cent,  of  the  first 
(quoted  in  Offner  "").  This  is  similar  to  the  course 
of  learning  described  in  connection  with  the  learning 
curves  in  a  preceding  chapter.  The  value  of  repeti- 
tions can  be  enhanced  by  the  way  in  which  they  are 
distributed  over  a  given  lapse  of  time.  eJost  "^  has 
worked  this  out  into  the  formula  that  the  best  results 
can  be  got  when  the  repetitions  are  most  completely 
dispersed  over  a  given  stretch  of  time.  He  says: 
"  Series  of  12  syllables,  which  were  read  4  times 
each  on  6  successive  days,  were  more  firndy  con- 
nected than  those  which  were  read  8  times  apiece  on 
3  successive  days,  and  strongest  were  those  which  were 
read  2  times  each  on  12  days."  Perkins  ^"*  found 
that  one  reading  every  third  day  was  most  desirable. 
These  results  tell  against  the  advisability  of  the 
cramming  process;  for  when  repetitions  are  closely 
bunched  the  student  does  not  get  full  value  for  his 
trouble. 

Vividness,  Primacy,  and  Emotional  Congruity. — 
These  terms  are  used  by  James  to  describe  other 
factors  favorable  to  memory.  Experiments  made  by 
Calkins,^^''  in  which  series  of  numbers  were  exposed, 
showed  that  any  number  which  differed  from  the 
others  in  color,  size,  etc.,  was  by  that  fact  rendered 
vivid,  and  these  were  the  more  likely  to  be  remem- 
bered.    Primacy,  or  being  first  in  a  series,  may  be 


166  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

classed  as  a  kind  of  vividness,  and  it,  too,  gives  an 
advantage.  Whatever  stimulates  attention,  indeed, 
makes  an  impression  vivid.  Things  which  are  "■  emo- 
tionally congruous  "  are  those  which  belong  in  the 
same  "  constellation  "  or  group  of  associates.  This 
factor  is  akin  to  that  of  logical  coherence  or  meaning 
which  is  mentioned  below. 

Spatial  Arrangement. — Material  which  has  to  be 
learned  is  often  disposed,  by  the  subject,  into  spatial 
patterns.  The  following  extract  from  Quintilian  "^ 
shows  that  this  device  was  used  by  the  orators  of 
Rome: 

People  fix  in  their  minds  places  of  the  greatest  pos- 
sible extent  diversified  by  considerable  variety,  such  as  a 
large  house,  for  example,  divided  into  many  apartments. 
Whatever  is  remarkable  in  it  is  carefully  impressed  on 
the  mind,  so  that  the  thought  may  run  over  every  part  of 
it  without  hesitation  or  delay;  and  it  is  indeed  of  the 
first  importance  to  be  at  no  loss  in  recurring  to  any  part, 
for  ideas  which  are  meant  to  excite  other  ideas  ought 
to  be  in  the  highest  degree  certain.  They  then  dis- 
tinguish what  they  have  written,  or  treasured  in 
their  mind,  by  some  symbol  by  which  they  may  be  re- 
minded of  it ;  .  .  .  These  symbols  they  then  dispose  in  the 
following  manner :  they  place,  as  it  were,  their  first  thought 
under  its  symbol,  in  the  vestibule,  and  the  second  in  the 
hall,  and  then  proceed  round  the  courts,  locating  thoughts 
in  due  order,  not  only  in  chambers  and  porticoes,  but  on 
statues  and  other  like  objects.  This  being  done,  when  the 
memory  is  to  be  tried,  they  begin  to  pass  in  review  all 
these  places.  .  .  .  What  I  have  specified  as  being  done 
with  regard  to  a  dwelling  bouse  may  be  done  also  with 
regard  to  public  buildings,  or  a  long  road,  or  the  walls  of  a 


MEMORY  167 

city,   or   pictures,   or   we   may   even   conceive   imaginary 
places  for  ourselves  .   .   .,"  etc. 

It  can  also  be  shown  experimentally  that  nonsense 
syllables  which  are  presented  in  definite  spatial  ar- 
rangements are  memorized  more  easily  thereby.  I 
compared  series  of  syllables  which  were  presented  one 
by  one,  but  all  in  the  same  spot,  with  syllables  which 
were  presented  one  at  a  time  in  successive  positions 
along  a  line,  so  that  each  syllable  was  associated  with 
a  separate  spot,  and  found  that  the  latter  series  were 
more  readily  learned.^^*^  Gamble  ^^°  also  reports  the 
favorable  effect  of  a  definite  and  constant  localization. 

Rhythm  and  Rhyme. — There  is  an  analogy  be- 
tween spatial  patterns  and  rhythm,  or  temporal  pat- 
terns. Each  is  a  means  of  grouping  impressions, 
and  each  proves  to  be  helpful  in  the  memory  process. 
With  many  persons,  there  ig  a  spontaneous  subjective 
grouping  of  any  series  of  successive  impressions. 
Two-,  three-,  and  four-part  groupings  are  common. 
With  many  also  an  actual  rhythm  or  accent  in  the 
scries  gives  an  advantage.  Smith  ^^^  found  that 
trochaic  measure  was  more  favorable  to  memorizing 
than  the  entire  absence  of  measure,  as  in  unaccented 
series,  but  that  three-part  measures  were  better  yet. 
Adams  ^^"  offers  like  evidence.  I  find,  in  class  tests 
upon  this  question,  that,  although  rhythm  generally 
assists  the  memorizing  of  nonsense  syllables,  occa- 
sionally a  strong  subjective  rhythm  runs- counter  to 


168  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  objectively  present  rhythm  and  interferes  with 
the  learning. 

Rhymes,  alliterations,  and  other  forms  of  assonance 
also  seem  to  help  in  the  business  of  memorizing.  In 
these  cases  the  factor  of  repetition  is  at  work,  and 
the  presence  of  common  elements  doubtless  makes  one 
rhyme  recall  another. 

Presentation  Through  Different  Senses. — Which 
kinds  of  sensation  make  the  most  lasting  impression? 
Is  a  combination  better  than  a  single  one?  In  an- 
swer to  the  first  we  find  that  there  are  individual  dif- 
ferences. Some  persons  remember  better  what  they 
see,  others  what  they  hear,  etc.  Henmon  ^^^  found 
that  most  of  his  subjects  were  auditory  in  type.  This, 
as  we  have  seen,  does  not  imply  the  use  of  auditory 
imagery ;  in  fact,  Henmon's  subjects  who  excelled 
when  stimuli  were  presented  in  auditory  fashion 
sometimes  did  so  because  this  left  them  greater  lib- 
erty in  translating  the  material  into  congenial  visual 
forms.  Smedley  ■**  {cf.^^)  carried  on  tests  with  chil- 
dren, first  in  memorizing  a  series  of  numbers  which 
they  had  merely  heard,  then  series  which  were  merely 
seen,  then  series  both  seen  and  heard,  then  series  seen 
and  heard  and  uttered  by  the  children  themselves,  and 
finally  series  of  which  the  visual  and  auditory  presenta- 
tion was  accompanied  by  graphic  movements  made  by 
the  children.  The  order  in  which  the  several ;nethods 
succeeded  was:  1.  auditory-visual-articuhitory,  2.  au- 


MEMORY  169 

ditory-visual,  3.  aiiditorv-visual-grapbic,  4.  and  5. 
auditory  for  younger,  visual  for  older  children. 
Other  investigators  find  that  there  is  danger  of  dis- 
traction when  three  sensory  elements  are  combined, 
but  that  two  are  superior  to  one. 

Meaning — The  factor  which  is  probably  most  im- 
portant of  all  in  favoring  memory  is  meaning,  or 
logical  connection.  That  which  has  coherence  within 
itself  has  parts  which  are  already  associated.  As  a 
work  of  art  has  a  beginning,  a  middle,  and  an  end, 
so  any  logical  whole  has  elements  which  suggest  and 
lead  on  to  one  another.  Also,  a  thing  which  has  sig- 
nificance "  for  a  person  "  is  one  which  has  roots  in 
his  past  interests,  or  which  connects  itself  with  his 
present  purposes,  and  hence,  by  virtue  of  these  asso- 
ciations, is  likely  to  be  retained  in  memory. 

The  accompanying  table,  No.  XIII,  from  Ebbing- 
haus,  compares  the  number  of  repetitions  necessary 
for  the  first  learning  of  series  of  nonsense  syllables 
with  the  number  required  for  stanzas  of  poetry,  and 
gives  also  the  number  of  repetitions  needed  on  six 
successive  days  for  the  re-learning  of  the  same  series. 


No.  of  syllables 
in  series 

12   

24   

36   

1    stanza    of    "  Don 

Juan"   7.75       3.75       1.75       0.5       0.0       0.0 


TABLE  XIII 

Av.  no.  of  repetitions 
I.             II.            III. 

on  successive  days 
IV.         V.         VI. 

16.5       11.0 

7.5 

5.0 

3.0      2.5 

44.0      22.5 

12.5 

7.5 

4.5       3.5 

55.0       23.0 

11.0 

7.5 

4.5       3.5 

170  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

It  is  true  that  the  influence  of  rhythm  and  rhyme  is 
operative  in  this  experiment,  but  the  effect  of  these 
factors  is  very  slight  as  compared  with  the  great  dif- 
ference here  shown  between  the  poetry  and  the  non- 
sense syllables.  When  one  remembers  that  the  stanza 
contains  about  eighty  syllables,  and  that  it  is  learned 
in  seven  or  eight  repetitions,  the  advantage  of  the 
meaning  element  is  apparent.  This  table  also  illus- 
trates the  difference  in  the  curve  of  forgetting  be- 
tween sense  and  nonsense  material.  The  proportion 
of  repetitions  needed  to  revive  a  significant  passage 
is  even  less  than  the  ratio  needed  for  its  first  ac- 
quisition. In  other  words,  if  the  learning  curves 
were  plotted  for  this  table,  the  curve  for  the  poetry 
would  show  the  steepest  drop. 

The  Whole  and  Part  Methods  of  Memorizing. — 
The  question  of  the  most  economical  way  of  getting 
by  heart  a  given  selection  has  attracted  interest  be- 
cause of  its  direct  practical  use  in  school.  Steffens  ^^* 
found  that  in  memorizing  stanzas  of  nine  lines  each, 
her  subjects  saved  time  by  reading  the  wliole  selection 
through  time  after  time  without  a  break,  instead  of 
taking  it  in  sections.  Iler  results  hold  good  for  non- 
sense syllables  as  well  as  for  significant  material. 
The  advantage  of  the  whole  over  the  part  method 
has  been,  in  a  general  way,  confirmed  by  other  ex- 
perimenters, even  when  selections  of  considerable 
length   were   used,    as   by   Pyle.^°*''     But   there   are 


MEMORY  171 

marked  individual  differences  here.  Some  persons 
show  greater  disparity  between  tlie  two  methods  than 
others,  and  not  a  few  learn  more  quickly  by  the  part 
method,  at  least  when  they  iirst  try  the  two  ways. 
Freeman  ^^^  finds  that  some  of  his  students  prefer 
the  part  method  and  do  better  with  it,  and  some  of 
my  observations  tend  to  confirm  this.  My  personal 
experience  with  the  two  methods,  however,  is  as  fol- 
lows :  I  learned  a  series  of  twenty  passages  of  poetry, 
each  one  approximately  140  to  150  words  long.  The 
first  passage  was  three  stanzas  from  ISToyes's  "  Flower 
of  Old  Japan,"  and  wa:.  learned  by  my  "  natural 
method,"  i.e.,  a  part  method.  This  took  18  minutes 
30  seconds.  The  last  passage  of  the  series  w^as  from 
the  same  source  and  comparable  in  every  way  in 
difficulty  with  the  first.  Guided  by  the  experience 
gained  in  the  intervening  series  I  used  chiefly  the 
whole  method,  and  learned  the  selection  in  6  minutes 
42  seconds.  This  difference  is  not  due  wholly  to  a 
difference  in  method,  but  shows  also  the  effect  of 
practice.  The  results  of  the  training  series  are  given 
in  Table  XIV.  The  first  eight  selections  consisted 
of  three  stanzas  each  from  the  above  poem.  The  last 
ten  selections  consisted  of  two  stanzas  each  from  Shel- 
ley, "  The  Revolt  of  Islam."  The  two  methods  were 
used  on  alternating  days:  thus  Xo.  I  of  the  whole 
method  was  learned  first,  l^o.  I  of  the  part  method 
next,  then  'No,  II  of  the  whole,  etc. 


172  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


TABLE  XIV 

NOYES 

Whole  method  Part  method 

(minutes)  (minutee) 

1 12.00  1 18.50 

II 9.55  II 13.50 

III.    9.18  III 14.63 

IV 11.05  IV 11.93 


Av 10.44  Av 14.64 

m.v 1.08  m.v 1.93 

Shelley 

1 10.33  I 13.56 

II 9.08  II 12.58 

III 12.56  III 12.03 

IV 9.36  IV 12.45 

V 7.81  V 11.01 


Av 9.82  Av 12.32 

m.v 1.29  m.v 0.64 

The  relative  merits  of  the  two  methods  may  be 
summed  up  in  this  way:  in  the  whole  method  the 
meaning  and  logical  connection  of  the  entire  passage 
is  made  clear  by  the  reading  of  it  as  a  whole,  and  all 
associations  are  made  in  their  correct  order  through- 
ont  the  learning  process,  so  that  none  have  to  be 
broken  up,  as  in  case  of  the  part  method.  For  in- 
stance, in  the  whole  method  the  last  line  of  the  first 
stanza  is  followed  directly  by  the  first  line  of  the 
second  stanza,  whereas  in  the  part  method  the  last 
line  of  the  first  is  followed  by  a  return  to  the  first 
line  of  the  first,  which  is  a  wrong  sequence  that  must 


MEMORY  173 

be  aljandoned  later.  Then,  too,  as  Steffens  showed, 
in  the  part  method  the  subject  devotes  many  more 
repetitions  to  the  first  lines  of  the  passage  than  to  the 
last  lines,  that  is,  he  keeps  starting  over  again  and 
hence  makes  an  imeconomical  distribution  of  his 
repetitions.  The  advantage  of  the  part  method  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  lets  the  subject  feel  his  own  prog- 
ress. He  knows  that  he  has  a  grip  on  some  of  the 
passage  anyway,  whereas  with  the  whole  method  there 
is  the  disagreeable  uncertainty  about  the  whole  thing. 
AYith  the  whole  method  the  subject  has  to  work  on 
with  nothing  to  show  for  his  efforts  until  at  last  the 
entire  passage  is  learned.  It  seems  to  require  more 
self-possession  to  learn  by  the  whole  plan.  For  prac- 
tical purposes  it  is  not  so  important  to  decide  which 
method  is  best  in  general  as  it  is  for  the  student  to 
find  out  which  will  work  best  in  his  own  case.  Prob- 
ably some  combination  of  the  two  will  be  found  best, 
a  method  which  brings  out  the  meaning  of  the  pas- 
sage by  several  complete  readings,  but  which  permits 
the  repetition  of  specially  difficult  places.  The  stu- 
dent should  be  urged,  however,  to  give  the  whole 
method  a  really  fair  trial  before  deciding  that  he  is 
of  the  part  method  type. 

Learning  in  Context.  A  Class  Experiment. — This 
test  is  a  comparison  between  learning  Italian  words 
in  context  and  learning  them  in  a  list.  It  was  tried 
with  a  group  of  twelve  young  women,  no  one  of  whom 


174  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

had  studied  Italian.     Two  stanzas  from  Dante  were 
chosen,  l^o.  I  and  'No.  II,  as  follows : 

No.  I 

Per  me  si  va  nella  citta  dolente, 
Per  me  si  va  nell'  eterno  dolore, 
Per  me  si  va  tra  la  perduta  gente. 

Giustizia  mosse  il  mio  alto  Fattore: 
Fecemi  la  divina  Potestate, 
La  Somma  Sapienza  e  il  prinio  Amore. 

Dinanzi  a  me  non  fur  cose  create, 
Se  non  eterne ;  ed  io  eterno  duro. 

Lasciate  ogni  speranza,  voi  ch'  entrate! 

No.  II 
"  Ma  dimmi :  al  tempo  de'  dolci  sospiri, 
A  che  e  come  concedette  Amore 
Che  conosceste  i  dubbiosi  desiri?" 

Ed  ella  a  me :  "  Nessuii  maggior  dolore 
Che  ricordarsi  del  tempo  felice 
Nella  miseria;  e  cio  sa  il  tuo  dottore. 

Ma  se  a  conoscer  la  prima  radice 
Del  nostro  amor  tu  ai  cotanto  affetto, 
Faro  come  colui  che  piange  e  dice." 

The  class  was  given  a  few  minutes'  drill  on  certain 
rules  of  Italian  pronunciation,  and  then  divided  into 
two  groups.  To  Group  I  were  distributed  copies  of 
a  vocabulaiy  made  up  of  all  the  words  in  the  first 
selection,  in  alphabetical  order,  and  with  the  English 
equivalents  beside  them.  These  students  were  to 
study  the  vocabularies  by  any  method  they  pleased 
for  one-half  hour.  Group  II  was  taken  to  another 
room  and  for  one-half  hour  was  taught  the  iirst  selec- 
tion by  the  following  steps.     Typewritten  copies  of 


MEMORY  175 

the  poem  were  given  to  each  person,  but  before  thej 
Avere  allowed  to  look  at  the  paper  at  all  the  experi- 
menter— 

1.  Explained  the  context  from  which  this  excerpt 
came,  and  the  general  tenor  of  the  passage  itself. 

2.  Gave  a  close  English  translation  of  the  poem. 

3.  The  students  were  then  told  to  look  at  the  type- 
written papers  while  the  experimenter  read  the  lines 
aloud  in  Italian  from  beginning  to  end. 

4.  A  second  reading  followed,  with  pauses  between 
lines  for  translation  and  for  any  questions. 

5.  The  group  then  read  aloud  in  Italian  follow- 
ing the  experimenter,  at  first  in  unison,  and  then  in- 
dividually, each  one  giving  also  a  translation. 

6.  Several  readings  by  the  whole  group  of  the 
whole  selection. 

7.  Attempts  by  each  one  to  recite  the  selection  by 
heart. 

At  the  end  of  the  half-hour  the  two  groups  came 
together  and  took  a  test  on  the  vocabulary,  and  the 
group  which  had  studied  the  poem  wrote  down  all 
they  could  of  it.  The  two  groups  then  changed 
places  and  the  test  was  repeated  with  the  second 
selection  and  its  corresponding  vocabulary.  One  week 
later  a  test  was  given  combining  the  two  vocabularies, 
and  the  errors  for  each  student  w^re  classified  into 
two  lists  according  as  they  had  been  learned  in  con- 
text or  in  vocabulary.     The  results  give  as  the  aver- 


176 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


age  number  of  errors  on  words  learned  by  list  .58, 
the  average  for  words  learned  in  context  3.83.  The 
second  test,  a  week  later,  on  the  same  words  shows 
average  errors  of  6.3  for  the  list  words,  and  3.5  for 
the  context  words.  Thus  the  w^ords  learned  in  lists 
have  the  advantage  at  first  but  lose  it  later.  In  addi- 
tion to  a  more  permanent  learning  of  the  individual 
w^ords,  the  group  wdiich  learned  the  poem  in  each 
case  were  able  to  recite  the  poem  very  creditably. 
One  group  made  an  average  score  of  82  per  cent.,  the 
other  of  91  per  cent,  on  the  poetry  at  the  first  trial. 
Both  groups  made  about  76  per  cent,  on  the  second. 
Growth  of  Memory  with  Age. — The  popular  be- 
lief that  children  have  better  memories  than  adults 
is  not  borne  out  by  experimental  evidence,  though  it 
may  be  necessary  to  distinguish  between  power  of 
acquisition  and  long  retention.  Smedley  *^  finds  that 
the  memory  for  digits  improves  from  the  age  of  seven 
up  to  nineteen,  and  Jacobs  ^"  reports  increase  of  the 
memory  span  for  auditory  digits  from  eight  up  to 
eighteen.  Pohlmann's  table,  quoted  from  Whipple,^® 
of  the  changes  due  to  age,  is  reproduced  in  Table  XV. 

TABLE  XV 

Net  Efficiency  of  Various  Memories,  in  Relation  to  Age. 


Age 

9 

10 

11 

12 
59  1 

13     14 

62  168.9 

1 

15 
55.3 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

Average 
Capacity 

39.4 

41.4 

55.7 

62.9 

58.6 

58.0 

65.4 

68.S 

MEMORY 


177 


n 


n 


Age  13 


n  r 


Age  14 


n 


Age  15 


IL 


Age  16 


rD 


Age  17 
Fig.  16A. 


178 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


This  table  shows  its  maximum  at  fourteen,  which  is 
not  again,  approached  until  twenty.  I  gave  the 
"  Marble  Statue  "  test,  as  prescribed  in  AYhipple,  to 
ninetv-seven  girls,  who  were  about  evenly  divided 
into  five  groups,  aged,  respectively,  thirteen,  fourteen, 
fifteen,  sixteen,  and  seventeen.  Their  scores  appear  in 
Fig.    16 A,   in  which  the  distribution  indicates   im- 


FiG.  16B. 

provement  up  to  the  age  of  seventeen.  The  median 
number  of  points  remembered  was  39  for  the  13-  and 
14-year-olds,  42.5  for  15-  and  16-year-olds,  and  44 
for  the  17-year-olds.  Fig.  16B  gives  the  distribution 
of  116  girls  of  18  years  for  the  same  test.  Their 
median  score  was  43  points. 

Can  Memory  be  Improved? — Although  there  are 


MEMORY  179 

many  differences  in  native  endowment  which  can 
never  be  equalized  by  training,  yet  the  power  to 
memorize  can  certainly  be  improved  so  far  as  indi- 
vidual attainment  is  concerned.  Experiments  of 
Midler  and  Schumann,"^  of  Winch,  and  of  others 
show  the  effect  of  practice.  The  results  quoted  in 
connection  with  the  whole  and  part  method  of  memo- 
rizing show  practice  effect.  The  capacity  of  orientals 
in  memorizing,  if  common  report  can  be  trusted, 
would  seem  to  indicate  the  result  of  educational 
policy.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  memory  can  be  im- 
proved in  two  ways,  by  practice  and  by  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  various  factors  favorable  to  recall. 

Good  memory  is  very  generally  found  to  be  cor- 
related with  intelligence.  There  is  also  a  sex  correla- 
tion, girls  being  somewhat  superior  to  boys. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  GKOWTH  OF  EEASON.  LOGICAL 
RELATIONS 

Definitions  of  Reason. — It  is  an  easy  matter  to 
know  a  good  memory  when  we  meet  it ;  we  can  keep 
a  record  of  the  original  event  and  then  compare  the 
reproduction  with  it  item  by  item.  But  it  is  often 
hard  to  recognize  with  certainty  an  act  of  reasoning. 
Reasoning,  or  sagacity,  is  a  new  relating  of  terms. 
Hence  it  is,  by  its  nature,  less  susceptible  of  ap- 
praisal by  any  standard  performance:  there  is  no 
original  to  compare  it  with,  the  act  itself  is  the  origi- 
nal. Each  piece  of  real  thinking  is  unique  so  far 
as  the  particular  thinker  is  concerned.  Still,  we  must 
try  to  find  elements,  if  possible,  which  may  be  com- 
mon to  all  reasonings,  or  to  distinguish  types  of  sagac- 
ity, and  to  note  the  growth  of  the  capacity  to  handle 
logical  relations.  There  are  many  ways  of  describ- 
ing this  fact  of  sagacity,  and  the  conditions  under 
which  it  operates.  It  depends,  it  is  said,  upon  the 
capacity  to  use  symbols,  concepts,  or  abstractions. 
Reasoning  is  sometimes  identified  with  the  classifica- 
tion and  definition  of  experience.     Reasoning  is  the 

180 


THE  GROWTH  OF  REASON  181 

handling  of  logical  relations  as  in  the  syllogism.  It 
is  the  substitution  of  similars;  it  is  an  ideal  experi- 
ment; it  is  synonymous  with  ingenuity  in  the  solu- 
tion of  problems.  This  and  the  next  two  chapters 
will  be  devoted  to  the  discussion  and  illustration  of 
these  ideas  of  the  reasoning  process. 

Conception  and  Abstraction. — Young  children  are 
concrete  and  literal  in  their  thinking.  The  use  of 
symbols  and  concepts,  i.e.,  the  power  of  abstraction 
which  lets  one  thing,  the  sign,  "  stand  for  "  or  repre- 
sent another,  the  thing  signified,  is  slowly  acquired. 
This  is  apparent  in  their  use  of  language.  ]^ames 
mean  to  them  the  first  tangible  object  with  which 
they  are  associated.  I  know  of  a  little  Catholic  child 
who  thinks  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  his  left  shoulder ! 
In  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  he,  it  seems,  always 
touches  his  left  shoulder  at  those  words.  When  chil- 
dren learn  to  count  they  associate  the  number  names 
with  individual  objects.  Thus,  if  you  count  on  the 
fingers  for  a  child,  calling  the  thumb  "  one  "  and  the 
little  finger  "  five,"  he  will  object  if  you  start  back 
the  other  way  and  call  the  little  finger  "  one,"  be- 
cause you  just  said  it  was  "  five."  He  takes  all 
nouns  as  proper  names  at  first.  The  child  makes  two 
kinds  of  errors ;  he  attaches  general  names  to  par- 
ticular objects,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  names  which 
properly  attach  to  special  objects,  like  "  father,"  he 
extends  to  any  similar  object  and  calls  every  man 


182  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

''  father."  The  child  starts  with  an  experience  which 
is  neither  general  nor  particular,  and  it  is  his  task 
to  work  out  the  difference  between  the  two. 

ISTow  the  association  of  names  with  their  meanings, 
of  symbol  with  concept,  is  different  from  the  asso- 
ciations of  rote  memory.  It  is  based  on  two  things. 
Firsfthere  must  be  a  group  of  objects  having  similar 
qualities,  and  the  j:»erception  of  this  similarity  causes 
the  objects  to  exist  for  us  as  a  class.  Second,  there 
must  be  some  tag,  as  it  were,  to  label  the  class  with. 
These  labels,  or  symbols,  may  resemble  the  things 
which  they  mean  or  they  may  not ;  it  does  not  matter 
so  far  as  their  function  is  concerned,  for  all  symbols 
are  arbitrary.  The  algebraic  x  does  not  signify  an  un- 
known quantity  because  it  looks  like  one,  or  because 
it  has  been  associated  with  unknown  quantities  in  the 
past ;  it  signifies  an  unknown  quantity  because  we 
say  it  shall.  It  is  our  use  of  a  thing,  our  purpose 
with  it,  which  settles  its  meaning  for  us.  Associa- 
tions of  this  sort  are  purposeful,  they  are  logical  rela- 
tions. Associations  which  are  guided  by  a  task  or 
purpose  are  sometimes  called  controlled  associations. 

Controlled  Associations. — James  said  that  the 
genius  is  he  who  detects  hidden  similarities.  And  the 
philosopher  Hegel,  before  him,  taught  that  to  find 
common  ground  between  things  which  at  first  seem 
entirely  opposed  is  verily  to  think.  He  called  it  the 
reconciliation  of  opposites.     The  ability  to  call  up  asso- 


THE  GROWTH  OF  REASON  183 

ciated  opposites  is  frequently  used  as  an  intelligence 
test.  The  ability  to  say  ''  np "  to  the  stimulus 
"  down,"  or  ''  out  "  to  the  stimulus  "  in,"  appears  at 
first  like  an  exercise  in  pure  rote  memory,  but  such 
is  not  the  ease.  The  response  must  be  a  word  which 
enters  into  a  given  relationship  with  the  stimulus 
word,  unites  with  it  in  the  relation  of  opposition. 
The  list  of  easy  opposites,  as  in  the  Woodworth  and 
Wells  tests,®^**  ought  to  be  answered  by  eight-year- 
old  children  with  a  score  of  about  75  per  cent.  This 
means  that  many  younger  children  should  be  able  to 
handle  the  test,  and  this  seems  to  be  the  fact.  The 
opposites  test  is  probably  the  easiest  of  the  logical 
relations  tests  commonly  given.  Norsworthy's  "* 
tables  show  that  children  from  8  to  16  years  do  bet- 
ter, at  each  age,  on  the  opposites,  than  they  do  on 
the  part-whole  and  the  genus-species  tests. 

Other  logical  associations  tests  are:  1.  the  supra- 
ordinate  concept  test,  in  which  a  stimulus  word  like 
"  pine  "  is  to  be  answered  by  a  more  general  concept 
to  which  the  object  belongs,  e.g.  "  tree,"  2.  subordi- 
nate concept,  in  which  a  generic  term  like  "  fish  "  is 
to  be  answered  by  an  illustrative  or  subordinate  term 
like  "  bass,"  3.  the  co-ordinate,  4.  the  part-whole,  5. 
the  whole-part,  and  G.  another  part  of  a  common 
whole.  The  nature  of  these  is  apparent  from  the 
examples  given.  I  have  tried  the  opposites,  the 
supraordinate  and  the  subordinate  concepts  tests  with 


184  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

120  girls,  using  the  Woodworth-Wells  lists.  I  found 
the  reaction  times  to  be  quickest  for  the  opposites, 
next  quickest  for  the  finding  of  supraordinate  con- 
cepts, and  slowest  for  the  subordinate  concepts.  The 
introspections  of  the  subjects  confirm  the  impression 
that  the  opposites  are  easiest  and  the  subordinate 
concepts  hardest.  The  difference  in  reaction  times  is 
probably  due  to  the  fact  that  reaction  times  tend  to 
be  short  when  the  possible  number  of  right  reactions 
is  small.  For  the  opposites  there  are  very  few  right 
answers,  in  most  cases  only  one;  for  supraordinate 
concepts  there  are  more  alternatives,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  word  "  Rhine,"  which  was  classed  by  most  of  my 
subjects  as  a  river,  but  by  one  as  a  wine;  but  for 
subordinate  concepts  there  is  a  wide  range  of  cor- 
rect responses,  "  tree  "  may  bring  "  oak,"  "  maple," 
"  spruce,"  etc.,  and  where  the  possibilities  are  many 
there  is  hesitancy  in  choosing. 

.  The  effect  of  a  narrow  versus  a  wide  range  of  ideas 
to  choose  from  is  illustrated  in  the  subjoined  test, 
which  is  quoted  from  Starch.*^  Let  the  reader  time 
himself  on  filling  out  the  gaps  in  the  two  lists  of 
words  given  below  (Table  XV). 

Another  field  of  controlled  association  is  that  of 
arithmetical  computation.  Curves  of  improvement 
in  this   function   are  presented   in   a  later  chapter. 

Classification  and  Definition. — The  practical  value 
of  the  classifying  process  is  attested  in  a  quotation 


THE  GROWTH  OF  REASON  185 

TABLE  XV 

The  following  are  The  following  are 

names  of  well-known  miBcellaneous 

American  authors.  nouns. 

1.  E— rs-n  1.  Fl-o- 

2.  L-we—  2.  T-e- 

3.  H— m-s  3.  W-te- 

4.  R-l-y  4.  P-n— 1 

5.  B— a-t  5.  N-m— r 

6.  W-i— i-r  6.  K— f- 

7.  C— p-r  7.  R-v-r 

8.  P—  8.  W-g— 

9.  I-v-n-  9.  Sq— r- 
10.  V—  D-k-  10.  -n-m-1 

from  Thompson's  ^"  "  Scientific  Management."  "  The 
making  of  a  classification  is  the  beginning  of  wis- 
dom. ...  If  you  want  to  know  what  you  are  doing 
in  your  business — and  if  you  don't  the  sheriff  will 
certainly  get  you — you  must  reduce  to  order  and 
identify  every  element  of  labor,  every  bit  of  material, 
and  every  detail  of  organization  about  your  place,  to- 
gether with  every  relation  between  your  business  and 
the  financial  world  and  the  market.  And  you  can 
get  neither  order  nor  identification  without  classify- 
ing." This  is  no  more  true  of  commercial  business 
than  it  is  of  every  sort  of  spiritual  and  mental  busi- 
ness. Let  us  see  some  examples  from  school.  In 
schools  where  cheating  is  classed  bj'  the  students  as 
a  form  of  sport,  nearly  all  will  do  it  for  the  fun  of  the 
game.  But  where  it  is  conceived  of  as  stealing  some- 
thing,  and   as  a  disgraceful  thing  to  do,   few  will 


186  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

indulge.  It  all  depends  on  how  the  student  body 
looks  at  it;  i.e.,  on  the  concepts  under  which  it  is 
classified.  A  girl  who  is  slovenly  in  her  dress  be- 
cause she  thinks  it  trivial  or  vain  to  spend  time  on  it 
will  change  if  she  can  be  made  to  classify  neatness  as 
a  part  of  good  manners.  In  brief,  to  classify  is  to  put 
in  place,  that  is,  to  introduce  order  whether  among 
ideas  or  among  forms  of  conduct. 

Definition  carries  the  matter  of  classification  one 
step  further.  To  define  one  must  state  the  concept 
or  class  to  which  an  object  belongs,  plus  the  par- 
ticular way  in  which  the  object  differs  from  all  others 
in  that  class.  A  complete  definition  means  a  perfect 
identification  of  the  thing  defined. 

Binet  has  used  the  ability  to  define  as  one  of  his 
intelligence  tests,  and  he  discovers  three  stages  of 
development  in  children's  definitions.  Up  to  the  age 
of  four  he  finds  the  child,  when  asked  to  define,  either 
failing  to  answer  at  all,  or  answering  by  a  repetition 
of  the  question,  or  else  by  an  identical  proposition, 
such  as  "  a  fork  is  a  fork."  (There  is  an  interesting 
parallel  between  this  phase  of  definition  in  childhood 
and  some  of  the  early  problems  in  Greek  logic.) 
The  second  type  is  called  by  Binet  definition  by  use. 
It  is  characteristic  of  children  between  the  ages  of 
about  four  or  five  and  nine.  The  following  set  of 
replies  which  I  got  from  a  girl  of  seven  are  typical : 
a  fork — "  What  you  eat  with  "  ;  a  table — "  Where  you 


THE  GROWTH  OF  REASON  187 

leave  all  your  books  on  and  everything  " ;  a  chair — 
"  What  jou  sit  on  ";  a  horse — "  What  drives  yon  to 
places  ";  a  mama — "  Takes  care  of  yon."  The  third 
kind  is  called  definitions  better  than  by  use.  "  This," 
says  Binet,^^^  "  includes  all  answers  that  describe 
the  thing  or  even  begin  with  '  It  is  a  thing  ' — '  It  is  an 
animal,'  etc.  ...  At  four  years  half  the  children 
define  by  'use':  it  increases  a  little  at  five,  and  at 
six  practically  all  define  this  way.  !N"ot  before  nine 
do  the  majority  give  the  definitions  that  are  better 
than  hy  use." 

From  one  point  of  view  there  are  no  definitions 
really  better  than  those  by  use;  for  it  is  use,  or  the 
function  of  a  thing,  which  makes  it  what  it  essentially 
is.  To  describe  the  size,  shape,  and  composition  of  a 
chair  is,  after  all,  less  direct  than  to  say,  "  What  you 
sit  on  " ;  for  color,  shape,  etc.,  are  variable,  but  to  be 
sat  on  is  the  eternal  essence  of  a  chair.  However, 
a  study  of  children's  definitions  by  use  during  this 
second  stage  shows  that  the  uses  themselves  are  not 
specific  enough  to  differentiate  the  object.  To  define 
a  horse  as  "  what  drives  you  to  places  "  does  not  dis- 
tinguish it  from  an  automobile.  Statements  of  this 
sort  are  too  general.  We  may  say  that  the  child 
classifies  at  this  age  but  does  not  define.  The  best 
definition,  theoretically,  gives  the  class  and  differ- 
entia of  an  object ;  practically,  it  gives  both  descrip- 
tion and  use. 


188  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

One  reason  for  the  unsatisfactory  nature 'of  defini- 
tions by  young  children  is  that  children  do  not  realize 
the  purpose  of  definitions.  It  seems  foolish  or  whim- 
sical to  them  that  any  one  should  ask  what  a  fork  is. 
It  takes  some  range  of  imagination  to  try  to  define 
in  such  a  way  that  another  person  may  know  exactly 
the  object  meant.  It  requires  some  detachment  from 
one's  own  immediate  apprehension  of  the  object, 
and  a  capacity  for  translating  into  equivalent  terms. 
The  growth  of  this  capacity  is  virtually  a  growth  in 
judgment. 

Judgment  has  been  viewed  as  a  combination  of 
concepts,  or  the  qualifying  of  one  idea,  the  subject, 
by  another,  the  predicate.  The  resemblance  of  such 
a  process  to  classification  and  definition  is  perhaps 
clear  without  further  comment.  In  the  next  chap- 
ter we  turn  to  the  study  of  a  particular  way  of 
combining  judgments,  namely,  the  syllogism.  The 
syllogism,  as  the  classical  form  of  expression  for  the 
reasoning  process,  may  be  expected  to  give  us  some 
light  on  the  process  itself. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM 

The  syllogism  is  an  argument  expressed  in  a  defi- 
nite traditional  form.  It  includes  three  terms,  sub- 
ject, predicate,  and  middle  term,  called  S,  P,  and  M, 
and  these  are  combined  in  three  propositions.  Here 
is  a  boy's  argument : 

All  Indians  are  red. 
Sitting  Bull  is  an  Indian. 
Therefore  Sitting  Bull  is  red. 

(There  are  other  forms  of  the  syllogism,  but  they  can 
be  reduced  to  this  one.)  This  boy  probably  did  not 
actually  do  his  bit  of  reasoning  in  the  above  order. 
He  may  have  started  with  a  question,  wondering 
what  color  Sitting  Bull  was,  and  then  very  likely 
it  occurred  to  him  that  since  he  was  an  Indian  he 
must  be  red,  because  so  far  as  the  boy's  knowl- 
edge went  all  Indians  are  red.  In  this  way  his 
being  an  Indian,  i.e.,  the  middle  term,  is  the  means 
of  getting  the  conclusion;  it  is  the  ground  of  the 
inference.  Again  looking  at  boats  at  anchor  in  the 
sea  we  can  tell  that  the  tide  is  coming  in  because 
the  boats   are  headed  out.     This  inference  can  be 

189 


190  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

put  into  syllogistic  form,  though  it  makes  awkward 
reading. 

All  times  when  the  boats  at  anchor  are  headed  out  are 
times  when  the  tide  is  coming  in. 

This  is  a  time  when  the  boats  are  headed  out. 
Therefore,  the  tide  is  coming  in. 

In  reasoning  we  always  use  some  general  fact  or  law, 
which  we  apply  to  the  case  in  hand.  Sagacity  con- 
sists in  picking  the  law  which  has  a  bearing  on  the 
question. 

The  syllogism  can  be  treated  as  a  series  of  classifi- 
cations. In  the  first  example,  all  Indians  are  classified 
among  red  things.  Sitting  Bull  is  classified  as  an 
Indian,  and  hence  Sitting  Bull  may  be  classified  as  a 
red  thing.  The  middle  term  does  not  appear  in  the 
conclusion,  as  it  is  only  a  means  or  a  bridge  for  reach- 
ing the  final  classification. 

The  Use  of  Diagrams. — It  is  a  custom  to  repre- 
sent the  stages  of  syllogistic  reasoning  by  diagrams. 
A  proposition  such  as  "  All  trees  are  plants "  is 
said  to  mean  that  the  class  "  trees "  is  contained 
within  the  class  "jDlants,"  and  this  is  symbolized 
by  two  circles,  one  inside  the  other.  Venn^''  says 
that  there  are  just  five  ways  in  which  two  classes 
of  objects  can  be  connected,  and  that  these  may  be 
represented  by  diagrams,  as  in  Fig.  17. 

If,  for  example,  we  take  at  random  any  two  terms 
whatsoever,  as  A  and  B,  then  one  of  the  five  following 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  191 

propositions  is  bound  to  be  true:  either  1.  all  A  is 
all  B  (i.e.,  the  two  are  identical)  ;  or,  2.  all  A 
is  some  B ;  or,  3.  all  B  is  some  A ;  or,  4.  some  A  is 
some  B ;  or,  5.  no  A  is  any  B.  Keasoning  is  often 
clarified  by  the  use  of  such  diagrams,  and  demonstra- 

IV  V 


eB00 


Fig.  17. 


tion  made  more  convincing.  It  has  even  been  thought 
by  some  logicians  that  an  essential  part  of  the  rea- 
soning process  is  the  development  of  the  spatial  rela- 
tions implied  in  these  classifications. 

Storring's  Experiment. — Storring  ^'°  exposed  cards 
with  two  premises  on  them,  such  as : 

A  is  to  the  left  of  B 
C  is  to  the  left  of  A 
Therefore  .    .    . 

and  asked  his  subjects  to  draw  the  conclusion,  and  to 
report  on  how  they  did  it.  In  this  example,  the  A 
and  the  B  were  seen  to  represent,  by  their  actual 
position,  the  meaning  of  the  first  premise.  The  C 
was  then  shifted,  ideally,  to  occupy  a  place  to  the 
left  of  the  first  A,  and  the  conclusion  w^as  "read  off  " 
from  this  imagined  arrangement.  Sensations  of 
movement  were  also  reported  in  connection  with  this 


192  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

sort  of  inference.  Temporal  judgments,  like  "  Since 
A  is  earlier  than  B,  and  B  earlier  than  C,  then  A 
is  yet  earlier  than  C,"  were  made  on  the  basis  of  space 
analogies,  as  if  the  terms  were  points  on  a  line. 
Finally  he  called  upon  his  subjects  for  reactions  to 
syllogisms  of  the  ordinary  type,  as 

All  A  belongs  to  the   class  B 
All  C  belongs  to  the  class  A 
Therefore  .   .   . 

At  the  reading  of  the  first  premise  the  subject 
thinks  of  A  as  being  inside  of  a  circle  named  B.  On 
reading  the  second  premise  a  spatial  arrangement  of 
C  inside  of  A  is  imagined.  These  two  are  often  at 
first  kept  separate,  and  only  by  an  eifort  is  the  A  of 
the  one  proposition  identified  with  the  A  of  the  other 
and  the  two  diagrams  merged  into  one.  It  is  the 
same  difficulty  that  the  child  had  who  was  told  to 
draw  illustrations  for  the  song,  "  The  Old  Oaken 
Bucket."  He  drew  three  pails  which  he  labeled,  re- 
spectively, "  the  old  oaken  bucket,  "  the  iron-bound 
bucket,"  and  "  the  moss-covered  bucket,"  not  realiz- 
ing their  identity.  Xow,  the  reasoner  must  always 
identify  his  middle  term,  must  recognize  the  same  old 
bucket,  and  this  is  the  crucial  act  of  the  reasoning 
process. 

One  further  point  we  may  cite  from  Storring. 
He  says  that  there  is,  on  the  average,  a  lengthening 
of  reaction  times  in  cases  where  the  major  premise 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  193 

stands  first,  as  against  those  cases  where  it  comes 
second.  Mj  observation  with  classes  in  logic  con- 
firms this.  It  is  easier  to  see  that  if  A  is  B,  and  B  is 
C,  then  A  is  C,  than  it  is  to  see  that  if  B  is  C,  and 
A  is  B,  then  A  is  C.  The  fact  that  the  two  B's  do 
literally  stand  closer  together  makes  it  easier  to  iden- 
tify them.  The  general  result,  then,  of  these  experi- 
ments is  this,  that  people  do  qnite  commonly  rely  upon 
spatial  analogies  and  diagrams  in  syllogistic  rea- 
soning. 

An  Experiment  with  Colored  Circles. — Logical 
thinking  is  so  dependent  upon  the  language  in  which 
it  is  carried  on  that  it  would  seem  desirable  to  be 
able  to  study  the  result  if  the  typical  problems  of 
formal  logic  could  be  presented  to  the  subject  in 
some  novel  form  which  would  minimize  tlie  need  for 
using  language.  And  again,  it  seems  to  me  that  if 
space  imagery  is  native  to  the  thought  process,  it 
would  be  possible  to  study  that  process  in  a  simpler 
stage  by  using  problems  which  w^re  already  ex-, 
pressed  in  spatial  form,  thus  doing  away  with  the 
necessity  for  translating  the  words  into  spatial  figures. 
The  following  device  is  an  attempt  to  meet  these 
conditions.  Series  of  diagrams  were  drawn  as  in 
Fig.  18  (  I  to  XII).  Each  figure  (except  XI  and 
XII)  contains  the  equivalent  of  two  propositions, 
and  the  subject  is  to  draw  a  conclusion  from  these. 
Affirmative  propositions  are  represented  by  one  circle 


194  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

■within  another.  Thus,  Fig.  I  means  1.  "  All  red  is 
contained  in  blue,"  2.  ^'  All  green  is  contained  in 
red."  ISTegative  propositions  are  represented  by  two 
circles  placed  side  by  side,  without  touching.  Thus, 
Fig.  Ill  reads,  1.  "  No  yellow  is  contained  in  red, 
and  no  red  in  yellow,"  i.e.,  they  are  mutually  exclu- 
sive, 2.  "  All  green  is  contained  in  red."  The  phrase 
"  is  contained  in  "  was  chosen  as  being  less  ambigu- 
ous than  the  word  "  is  "  ("  is  "  may  mean  "  is  the 
same  as,"  "  is  made  of,"  "  is  in  the  class  of,"  or  "  is 
contained  in,"  besides  other  meanings),  and  because 
it  makes  clear  the  spatial  idea  which  we  suppose  to 
be  prominent  in  this  kind  of  reasoning.  The  size  of 
the  circles  used  is  irrelevant,  and  only  the  relation 
of  inclusion  in  a  class  or  exclusion  from  it  is  to  be 
regarded  as  important.  It  was  explained  to  the  sub- 
jects that  the  statements  had  nothing  to  do  with  real 
color  mixture,  and  that  the  conclusion  was  to  be 
drawn  merely  on  the  basis  of  the  given  propositions. 
The  test  thus  has  the  advantage  of  eliminating  the 
confusion  between  formal  and  material  truth  because 
there  is  no  material  truth  in  any  of  its  statements. 
In  order  that  the  subject  might  express  his  con- 
clusion without  using  verbal  symbols,  a  set  of  wooden 
circles  was  provided.  There  were  six  circles  of  gradu- 
ated sizes  in  each  of  the  six  colors  used  in  the  test, 
i.e.,  thirty-six  circles  in  all.  Any  desired  combina- 
tion could  be  made  by  these.     (This  number  of  circles 


o  o 

o  o 

O  uO 

o  o 

OO   o 

o    OO 

o  o 

O    o 

o  o 

0    o 

XI 

@)0  o 

4                                       5 

o  o 

15 

o 

3  ^  13 

•  •• 

xn        ^^^ 


n 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  195 

is  necessary  only  because  of  problems  XI  and  XII.) 
The  right  "  answer  "  to  the  first  syllogism  is  to  pick 
up  a  green  circle  and  put  it  inside  a  blue  one.  This 
would  mean  "  All  green  is  contained  in  blue,"  only 
the  subject  need  not  use  the  words.  The  second  prob- 
lem reads  "  All  yellow  is  contained  in  blue  "  and 
"  All  green  is  contained  in  blue."  It  illustrates  the 
fallacy  of  undistributed  middle.  In  XI  the  subject 
was  asked  to  make  a  series  of  six  concentric  circles 
which  would  express  all  the  relationships  given.  The 
correct  series  starts  with  yellow  in  the  center,  then 
has  white,  green,  black,  red,  and  blue  surrounding  it. 

Prob.  XII  contains  fifteen  propositions.  The 
subject  here  also  arranges  a  series  of  concentric 
circles  so  that  no  one  of  these  propositions  is  con- 
tradicted. The  correct  series  begins  with  white  in 
the  center;  then  comes  green,  red,  blue,  yellow,  and 
black,  i.e.,  the  black  contains  all  the  others. 

The  test  was  tried  with  twenty-six  adults,  all 
but  one  being  women,  and  with  three  eleven-year-old 
girls.  Of  this  number  only  ten  made  no  mistakes  in 
reasoning.  The  problems  were  considered  on  the 
whole  to  be  harder  than  ordinary  syllogisms,  be- 
cause of  the  unaccustomed  form  of  the  test.  The 
chief  results  may  be  summarized  under  a  few 
heads. 

1.  Towards  the  end  of  the  series  a  few  subjects 
reported  that  they  tended  to  solve  the  easiest  ques- 


196  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

tions  without  the  use  of  verbal  imagery,  but  solely 
on  the  basis  of  imagined  shiftings  and  identifications 
among  the  painted  circles.  In  other  words,  it  was 
possible,  with  practice,  to  answer  the  easy  ones  by  a 
kind  of  spatial  intuition.     But, 

2.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases  there  was  an 
abundance  of  verbal  imagery  used.  The  diagrams 
were  translated  into  words  and  so  solved,  and  this  was 
especially  true  with  the  harder  examples.  This,  I 
think,  is  a  most  important  point,  that  the  act  of 
thinking  out  a  problem  seems  to  require  a  transla- 
tion of  the  terms  of  the  problem  into  something  dif- 
ferent from  what  is  given.  When  questions  are  asked 
in  verbal  terms,  we  tend  to  put  them  in  the  shape  of 
diagrams,  and  when  they  are  given  in  diagram  form 
we  turn  them  into  language.  Some  cases  happened 
in  which  the  subject  thought  in  spatial  terms,  but 
used  imaginary  circles  of  her  own  superposed  upon 
the  ones  given.  Others  reported  that  the  very  con- 
creteness  of  the  diagrams  worried  them.  The  essen- 
tial thing  seems  to  be  an  intellectual  backing  oiT 
from  the  conditions  given  as  if  to  gain  perspective. 
Hence  we  conclude  that  no  single  type  of  expression 
is  necessary  to  thinking,  as  spatial  diagrams  or 
verbal  forms;  but  that  the  chance  to  trans- 
late into  something  else,  or  to  find  equivalents,  is 
necessary. 

3.    The  errors  were  most  numerous  in  the  nega- 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  197 

tivo  arguments,  and  particularly  with  probs.  VI  and 
X  in  which  the  fallacy  of  illicit  major  is  likely  to 
be  committed. 

4.  The  actual  position  of  the  propositions  made  a 
difference  to  some  subjects.  Thus,  prob.  V  represents 
the  same  type  of  syllogism  as  probs.  I  and  VIII, 
only  the  order  of  the  premises  is  reversed.  This 
point  confirms  one  of  Storring's  results  quoted 
above. 

5.  There  seems  to  be  a  fair  degree  of  correspond- 
ence between  a  subject's  general  intelligence  and  his 
capacity  to  handle  this  test.  This  judgment  is  made 
in  part  from  a  personal  impression  of  the  subjects 
who  took  the  test,  all  of  whom  were  known  to  the 
experimenter,  and  in  part  from  a  comparison  of  the 
ranks  of  twelve  of  the  subjects  who  vvcre  members  of 
the  same  psychology  class.  The  correlation  between 
class  rank  and  rank  in  the  test  is  .77,  p.e.  .08. 

Tests  with  Verbal  Syllogisms. — It  is  a  matter  of 
some  pedagogical  interest  to  know  at  what  age  chil- 
dren are  able  to  handle  arguments  cast  in  regular 
syllogistic  form.  The  following  set  was  handed  to  a 
group  of  twelve  girls,  whose  average  age  was  about 
twelve  years.  These  children  had  had  some  slight 
amount  of  training,  incidental  to  their  English  and 
arithmetic,  in  logical  forms.  They  were  asked  to 
tell  whether  each  argument  was  right  or  wrong,  and 
to  give  some  reason  for  their  answer  in  each  case. 


198  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

They  were  also  told  to  accept  the  first  two  statements 
in  each  argument  as  true,  and  some  illustrations  were 
used  to  make  clear  the  difference  between  what  was 
''  really  "  true  and  what  was  formally  true.  The 
paper  was : 

CKITICIZE  THE  FOLLOWING  AEGUMENTS 

1.  All  fruit  is  good  to  eat,  and  pears  are  good  to  eat. 
Therefore  pears  are  fruit. 

2.  All  bull-dogs  are  brave,  and  Jack  is  a  bull-dog. 
Therefore  Jack  is  brave. 

3.  All  fish  are  cold-blooded.     The  whale  is  not  a  fish. 
Therefore  the  whale  is  not  cold-blooded. 

4.  All  tigers  are  fierce,  and  all  tigers  eat  meat. 
Therefore  all  meat-eaters  are  fierce. 

5.  All  good  men   wear  straw  hats.     Mrs.   Jones  is  a 

good  man. 
Therefore  Mrs.  Jones  wears  a  straw  hat. 

The  papers  were  scored  on  the  basis  of  one  point 
for  each  correct  answer,  and  one  point  for  each  ade- 
quate reason.  The  distribution  curve  is  given  in  Fig. 
19.  The  same  test  was  also  given  to  ninety-seven 
girls  from  a  private  school  of  excellent  standing. 
These  girls  were  divided  into  five  groups  ranging  in 
age  from  thirteen  to  seventeen,  each  group  including 
approximately  twenty.  Their  results  are  shown  in 
Fig.  19,  and  in  the  same  figure  appears  the  curve  for 
the  same  test  wnth  ninety-nine  college  freshmen,  girls 
whose  average  age  was  eighteen  years.  If  we  leave 
out  of  account  the  group  of  twTlve-year-olds,  who  had 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  199 


Q 


rD 


Age  13 


Q 


Age  14 


J~L 


iz£] 


Age  15 


Age  16 


11 


Q 


n 


Age  12 


Age  17  Age  18 

Fig.  19. 


200  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

had  a  little  training  in  these  forms,  and  whose  group 
includes  some  exceptional  children,  we  notice  a  strik- 
ing shift  in  the  curves  at  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
years.  The  test  is  apparently  too  hard  for  the  aver- 
age thirteen-year-old  and  too  easy  for  the  average 
sixteen-year-old.  It  is  much  too  easy  for  the  college 
group. 

The  five  arguments  proved  to  be  quite  different  in 
difficulty.  The  largest  number  of  errors  was  made 
on  the  fifth,  in  which  the  syllogism  is  valid  in  form 
but  absurd  in  content.  The  statement  that  "  Mrs. 
Jones  is  a  good  man  "  made  most  of  the  trouble. 
l^ext  in  difficulty  was  the  first,  in  which  the  conclu- 
sion is  true  but  the  argument  false,  being  an  instance 
of  undistributed  middle.  Then  the  third,  which 
gives  a  true  conclusion,  but  commits  the  fallacy  of 
illicit  major.  The  fourth,  showing  illicit  minor, 
and  the  second,  which  is  valid  both  in  form  and  con- 
tent, are  easiest.  The  total  number  of  errors  of  all 
subjects  for  each  argument  is  as  follows :  1.  59, 
2.  26,  3.  56,  4.  26,  5.  76.  These  relations  are  fairly 
constant  for  each  of  the  ages  represented  by  our 
subjects. 

In  another  study  of  the  ability  of  young  children 
to  follow  logical  arguments  sets  of  questions,  pat- 
terned in  part  after  those  used  by  Winch,''^''  were 
submitted  to  tAvo  classes  of  girls,  eleven  and  twelve 
years  old,  respectively. 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  201 

Test  I 

1.  Alice  is  taller  than  Barbara,  and  Barbara  is  taller 
than  Caroline.  Is  Alice  taller  or  shorter  than  Caroline, 
or  the  same  height,  or  can't  you  tell?  Give  reasons  for 
your  answer. 

2.  John's  birthday  is  before  Harry's,  and  Tom's  birth- 
day is  before  Harry's,  Is  John's  birthday  before  Tom's, 
or  after  Tom's,  or  can't  you  tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

3.  If  Santa  Claus  has  reindeer,  and  the  Esquimaux 
have  reindeer,  is  Santa  Claus  an  Esquimau  or  is  he  not, 
or  can't  you  tell?    Give  your  reasons. 

4.  Some  of  the  boys  in  the  next  town  play  marbles  all 
through  recess,  and  James  Burt  is  a  boy  in  the  next  town. 
So  do  you  think  he  plays  marbles  all  through  recess  or  not, 
or  can't  you  tell  ?     Give  your  reasons. 

5.  All  the  girls  in  the  class  are  over  eleven  years  old. 
But  Sara  is  not  in  the  class.  So  is  Sara  under  eleven  or 
not,  or  can't  you  tell  ?    Give  your  reasons. 

6.  Brave  men  are  always  kind,  and  brave  men  are  al- 
ways ready  to  defend  their  country.  Are  those  who  are 
ready  to  defend  their  country  always  kind  or  are  they 
not,  or  can't  you  tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

7.  If  my  dog  had  been  chained  up  he  would  not  have 
been  stolen.  But  he  is  not  stolen.  Was  he  chained  up  or 
not,  or  can't  you  tell  ?    Give  your  reasons. 

8.  If  the  cat  catches  the  canary,  the  canary  will  be 
killed.  But  the  cat  will  not  catch  the  canary.  Will  the 
canary  be  killed  or  not,  or  can't  you  tell?  Give  your 
reasons. 

9.  No  fairies  are  fat.  Jessie  is  not  a  fairy.  Is  Jessie 
fat  or  not,  or  can't  you  tell  ?    Give  your  reasons. 

10.  Less  than  half  of  the  girls  in  the  class  are  good 
runners,  and  less  than  half  are  good  jumpers.  Do  you 
think  that  there  are  any  girls  in  the  class  who  are  good 
runners  and  also  good  jumpers,  or  do  you  not  think  so,  or 
can't  you  tell?    Give  your  reasons. 


202  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Three  weeks  later  a  second  test  was  given  to  the 
same  groups,  which  was  designed  to  be  as  nearly 
similar  as  possible  in  difficulty  without  being  identi- 
cal in  the  terms  used. 

Testn 

1.  Mary  is  shorter  than  Margaret,  and  Margaret  is 
shorter  than  Jane.  Is  Mary  shorter  or  taller  than  Jane, 
or  the  same  height,  or  can't  you  tell?  Give  the  reasons 
for  your  answer. 

2.  Jim  ran  faster  than  Dick,  and  William  ran  faster 
than  Dick.  Did  Jim  run  faster  than  William,  or  not  so 
fast,  or  can't  you  tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

3.  If  meat-eating  animals  are  fierce,  and  tigers  are 
fierce,  are  tigers  meat-eating  animals  or  not,  or  can't  you 
tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

4.  Some  song  birds  fly  south  in  March,  and  the  meadow- 
lark  is  a  song  bird.  Do  you  think  the  meadow-larks  fly 
south  in  March  or  not,  or  can't  you  tell?  Give  your  rea- 
sons. 

5.  All  good  people  are  truthful.  But  this  man  is  not 
good.  Do  you  think  he  is  truthful  or  not  truthful,  or 
can't  you  tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

6.  All  policemen  are  able  to  make  arrests,  and  all 
policemen  wear  uniforms.  Are  all  people  who  wear  uni- 
forms able  to  make  arrests  or  not,  or  can't  you  tell  ?  Give 
your  reasons. 

7.  If  the  doll  had  been  put  away  it  would  not  have  been 
broken.  But  it  was  not  broken.  Was  it  put  away  or  not, 
or  can't  you  tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

8.  If  the  horse  runs  away  the  carriage  will  be  hurt. 
But  the  horse  will  not  run  away.  Will  the  carriage  be  hurt 
or  not,  or  can't  you  tell?     Give  your  reasons. 

9.  No  birds  can  play  ball.  Johnnie  is  not  a  bird.  Can 
Johnnie  play  ball  or  not,  or  can't  you  tell?  Give  your 
reasons. 

10.  Less  than  half  of  the  boys  in  the  class  can  swim, 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  203 

and  less  than  half  can  play  golf.  Do  you  think  that  there 
are  any  boys  in  the  class  who  can  swim  and  also  play 
golf,  or  do  you  not  think  so,  or  can't  you  tell?  Give  your 
reasons. 

The  average  score  for  correct  answers,  on  a  scale 
of  ten,  was,  for  test  I  older  class  7.2,   younger  class 
4.8 ;  for  test  II  older  8.3,  younger  4.6.     There  was, 
therefore,  some  improvement  in  the  older  children, 
but  none  in  the  younger.      The  superiority  of  the 
older  group  was  even  more  apparent  in  the  matter 
of  assigning  reasons   for  their   answers.      The   first 
question  on  each  test  proved  to  be  the  easiest  of  all, 
and  in  answering  it  a  number  of  children  spontane- 
ously drew  diagrams  to  illustrate  it.     The  hardest 
questions  were  those  which  were  cast  in  hypothetical 
form.      Eacli   of   the   possible   logical   fallacies   was 
represented  in  the  answers.     ^N^ine  children  said,  test 
I  no.  2,  that  John's  birthday  comes  at  the  same  time 
as  Harry's  because  they  both  come  before  Dick's. 
One  of  them  added,  "  This  simply  must  be  true." 
Seven  said  that  if  good  people  are  truthful,  and  this 
man  is  not  good  (test  II  no.  5),  he  cannot  be  truth- 
ful, etc.,  etc. 

A  Genetic  View  of  Logical  Fallacies. — From  a 
]nirely  logical  point  of  view  the  difference  between 
right  and  wrong  reasoning  is  an  absolute  difference. 
A  fallacy  is  a  failure.  Psychologically,  however,  fal- 
lacies are  not  so  much  bad  reasoning  as  they  are 


204  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

j^rimitive  or  undeveloped  reasoning.  They  are 
"  natural  "  mistakes,  and  represent  early,  and  per- 
haps inevitable,  stages  out  of  which  better  reasoning 
has  come.  One  such  stage  is  shown  in  the  argu- 
rnentum  ad  hominem,  in  which  a  conclusion  is  ac- 
cepted or  rejected  because  some  person  says  so,  not  on 
the  evidence  itself.  Young  children  regularly  do 
this.  Even  in  a  subject  like  arithmetic,  young  chil- 
dren are  more  willing  to  believe  that  an  answer  is 
correct  because  the  teacher  says  so,  than  because  the 
operations  which  they  have  performed  carry  any  con- 
viction. They  may  learn  to  recite  proofs  which  are 
convincing  to  the  adult  mind,  but  the  thing  which 
really  "  proves  "  the  conclusion  to  them  is  that  the 
teacher  or  father  says,  "  Yes,  that's  right." 

Again,  the  fallacy  of  undistributed  middle  arises 
from  a  process  of  thought  which  is  essentially  useful 
and  valid,  but  which  has  not  been  carefully  enough 
restricted.  If  John's  and  Harry's  birthdays  both 
come  before  Dick's,  then  they,  in  a  sense,  really  do 
come  at  the  same  time.  That  is,  if  we  think  of  time 
in  a  general  way  as  divided  into  two  parts,  that  which 
comes  before  and  that  which  comes  after  a  certain 
date,  then  both  birthdays  come  into  the  same  division. 
But  when  we  divide  time  up  into  smaller  parts,  so 
that  there  are  several  divisions  of  the  part  that  comes 
before  Dick's  birthday,  then  we  can  no  longer  be  sure 
that  the  other  two  days  fall  in  the  same  division.    It 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM  205 

is  extremely  important  that  a  teacher  should  be  able 
to  judge  whether  a  child's  reasoning  has  any  value, 
for  to  call  it  wrong  when  it  is  merely  incomplete  is 
to  discourage  and  to  confuse  the  child. 

Conclusion. — A  general  conclusion  suggested  by 
this  chapter  is  that  the  study  of  formal  logic,  in- 
cluding a  reduction  of  verbal  statements  to  spatial 
diagrams,  is  entirely  within  the  capacity  of  children 
of  fourteen  and  fifteen  years,  and  perhaps  less,  as 
Fig.  19  illustrates.  This  study  can  be  made  interest- 
ing to  children;  they  enjoy  doing  tests  like  those 
described  above,  and  the  detection  of  fallacies  has 
the  appeal  at  this  age  which  various  puzzles  afford. 
The  syllogism  itself  is  valuable  as  a  linguistic  dia- 
gram or  pattern  into  which  the  student  can  throw 
arguments  which  puzzle  him.  Logic  as  commonly 
taught  to  college  students  is  about  as  hard  as  ele- 
mentary geometry  or  algebra,  and,  in  my  opinion, 
it  ought  to  be  introduced  as  a  school  study  in  the 
first  or  second  year  of  the  high  school  curriculum. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OTHER  ASPECTS  OF  THE  THINKING 
PROCESS 

Substitution  of  Similars. — In  every  judgment, 
Jevons  taught,  we  find  a  balancing  of  values,  and 
in  every  proposition  the  subject  is  said  to  equal  or 
be  equivalent  to  some  aspect  of  the  predicate.  He 
thus  compared  the  sentence  to  an  equation,  and  he 
expressed  the  belief  that  all  thinking  is  a  process  of 
substituting  similars  for  one  another.  The  capacity 
to  use  symbols  answers  to  this  description.  Thus 
when  a  woman  goes  shopping  to  match  a  piece  of 
goods  she  snips  off  a  bit  of  the  original  stuff  and  car- 
ries it  along  as  a  sample,  or  symbol.  When  a  biologist 
lectures  on  frogs  he  brings  in  a  typical  individual 
as  a  specimen.  All  such  samples,  sjoecimens,  or  ex- 
amples are  similars  which  are  substituted  for  the 
sake  of  convenience.  Much  of  the  world's  practical 
thinking  hinges  upon  the  substitution  of  equivalents. 
In  industry  when  a  commodity  becomes  too  dear, 
substitutes  having  similar  properties  appear  in  the 
market.  The  physician  who  finds  that  his  patient  has 
scruples  against  eating  meat  substitutes  a  diet  which 

206 


ASPECTS  OF  THINKING  PROCESS       207 

has  similar  food  values.  In  many  inventions  the 
crucial  point  is  to  discover  something  which  will 
"  take  the  place  of  "  the  human  hand,  etc.,  etc. 

Analogy.— Very  like  the  substitution  of  similars 
is  the  discovery  of  analogies.     Analogy  is  a  percep- 
tion of  similarity,  but  a  perception  which  involves 
four  terms,  in  which  a  is  to  b  as  c  is  to  d.     Arith- 
metical proportion  is  an  example.     To  complete  the 
analogy  by  supplying  the  fourth  term,  as  in  "  Box- 
square^  Orange  .    .   .  ?  "  is  a  form  of  test  frequently 
included  among  the  "  logical  relations  "  which  we  dis- 
cussed  above,    but    rather   more    complex   than   the 
others.     I    found,    in    giving   the    AVoodworth-Wells 
analogies  to  the  ninety-seven  girls  reported  upon  in 
the  last  chapter  that  there  was  a  progressive  increase 
in  capacity  to  handle  the  test  from  the  thirteen-  to  the 
sixteen-year-old  group.     The  few  girls  of  six  and 
seven  years  of  age  whom  I  tried  were  not  able  to  do 

the  test  at  all. 

Other  Tests  as  Definitions  of  Thought. — All  "  in- 
telligence tests  "  proceed  upon  some  theory  as  to  what 
constitutes  thinking;  that  is,  they  reveal  somebody's 
conception  of  intelligence.  Among  these  the  com- 
pletion test  devised  by  Ebbinghaus  has  probably  re- 
ceived the  widest  indorsement.  The  subject  is  given 
a  mutilated  text,  and  told  to  fill  it  out  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  sense,  i.e.,  to  reconstruct  the  text.  The 
difficulty  of  the  performance  depends  upon  the  nature 


208  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

of  the  text  and  the  amount  of  mutilation.  Trabue  ^^^ 
has  experimented  with  a  series  of  sentences  gradu- 
ally increasing  in  difficulty.  Capacity  to  do  this 
type  of  test  appears  to  improve  with  age.  The  ability 
to  build  up  a  rational  whole  out  of  a  few  fragments 
is  certainly  one  form,  and  an  important  one,  of  the 
thinking  process.  It  would  seem  to  be  akin  to  the 
task  of  the  archeologist  in  reconstructing  his  speci- 
mens, or  of  the  historian  in  deciphering  old  manu- 
script. 

The  sensitivity  to  context,  which  the  completion 
test  involves,  has  been  studied  by  Eng  ^"^  in  connec- 
tion with  the  apprehension  of  abstract  ideas.  She 
asked  children  to  give  the  meanings  of  abstract  terms, 
and  when  they  did  not  know  them  she  gave  the 
words  in  sentences  to  see  to  what  extent  they  could 
infer  the  meaning  from  the  context.  The  percentage 
of  unknown  words  which  were  thus  understood  rose 
from  4.2  per  cent.,  in  the  case  of  ten-year-old  children, 
to  11.7  per  cent,  for  the  fourteen-year-olds. 

The  solution  of  puzzles  is  another  sort  of  test,  and 
the  ingenuity  required  by  it  is  commonly  believed  to 
be  associated  w^ith  mathematical  ability.  A  supply 
of  puzzles  may  be  found  in  the  work  of  Lindley,^" 
Terman,"^  Euger,^"  and  Finkenbinder.^'  The  fol- 
lowing. Fig.  20,  has  been  used  by  Thompson  ^^'' 
and  others.  The  subject  must  remove  three  lines, 
sides  of  the  small  squares,  so  as  to  leave  three  perfect 


ASPFXTS  OF  THINKING  PROCESS       209 

squares,  every  remaining  line  to  be  a  part  of  a  com- 
plete square.  I  gave  this  test  to  107  college  girls, 
averaging  eighteen  years  in  age.  The  figure  was 
made  np  of  fifteen  small  sticks,  and  the  subjects  were 
allowed  to  experiment  with  the  figure  by  taking  these 
out  on  trial  if  they  wished.  If  the  solution  had  not 
been  reached  in  ten  minutes'  time,  I  removed  line  a 
and  allowed  another  five  minutes.  Of  the  107  there 
were  39  who  failed  in  the  ten  minutes,  and  3  of  these 
failed  even  after  the  fifteen  minutes.     I  also  tested 


Fig.  20. 

11  girls,  aged  about  eleven  years.  They  were  given 
twelve  minutes  before  the  first  stick  was  removed. 
Of  these  6  failed  in  the  twelve  minutes  and  2  failed 
altogether,  i.e.,  in  fifteen. 

In  general  it  was  true  that  the  subjects  who  ex- 
perimented most  freely  by  taking  out  and  putting 
back  the  sticks  were  not  the  ones  who  made  the  best 
time.  The  trouble  with  some  of  them -was  that  they 
did  not  stop  to  observe  the  results  of  their  own  ex- 
perimentation :  they  would  take  out  one,  two,  or  three 


210  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

sticks,  and  if  that  did  not  make  the  desired  arrange- 
ment thej  would  quickly  put  them  back  and  take 
out  others.  Hence  it  happened  many  times  that  a 
subject  removed  line  a  without  seeing  the  significance 
of  it,  and  many  took  out  lines  h  and  c,  and,  not 
pausing  to  see  how  near  they  were  to  the  true  solu- 
tion, they  put  them  back  and  began  over  again.  It 
is  evident  that  the  mere  amount  of  experimentation  is 
not  here  correlated  with  effective  work.  On  the 
whole,  the  children  experimented  more  freely  than 
did  the  adults.  The  most  successful  subjects,  on  the 
other  hand,  frequently  reported  systematic  ideal  ex- 
perimentation. Some  wdio  got  it  most  quickly  "  saw 
it  in  a  flash  "  and  were  not  conscious  of  their  method, 
but  the  best  conscious  method  seemed  to  be  that  in 
which  a  clear  idea  of  the  solution  w^as  kept  before 
the  mind,  i.e.,  three  complete  squares  and  nothing 
over.  The  subjects  who  did  this  selected  in  turn 
every  possible  combination  of  three  squares,  until 
they  hit  upon  the  three  which  could  be  isolated  by 
taking  away  the  required  sticks.  A  clear  definition 
of  the  end,  and  then  attention  to  the  means  of  secur- 
ing it,  would  seem  to  be  their  formula. 

Another  and  a  simpler  ingenuity  test  is  the  "  ra- 
tional "  box,  devised  by  Hayes,^^*  which  is  to  be 
opened  by  pushing  a  little  door,  the  door  being  held 
in  place  by  a  series  of  metal  strips.  The  mechanism 
is  all  exposed  on  the  outside  of  the  box,  and  the 


ASPECTS  OF  THINKING  PROCESS       211 

sequence  of  moves  is  clearly  apparent  to  the  average 
adult.  The  median  time  for  opening  the  box  was  1 
minute  25  seconds  for  a  group  of  112  college  fresh- 
men girls,  though  of  this  number  there  were  10  who 
failed  in  the  five-minute  time  limit.  Of  19  girls,  ten 
and  eleven  years  old,  3  failed  in  the  eight-minute 
limit  allowed,  and  the  median  time  for  the  group  was 
2  minutes  40  seconds.  The  method  of  those  who 
made  the  best  time  in  this  test  was  to  start  with  a 
clear  idea  of  the  end  and  to  work  back  step  by  step 
until  they  came  to  the  first  move  of  the  series.  They 
examined  the  door  which  was  to  be  opened  to  see  what 
prevented  it  from  moving,  then  they  looked  to  see 
what  held  the  metal  strip  that  held  the  door,  etc.  In 
trying  this  test  with  a  few  even  younger  children,  of 
six  and  seven,  I  thought  that  they  showed  no  feeling 
for  the  sequence  involved,  no  notion  that  one  step 
depended  upon  another.  They  did  experiment  in  the 
sense  of  handling  the  box,  turning  it  over  and  over, 
but  it  was  as  if  they  expected  some  single  magic 
stroke  to  do  the  trick.  They  would  touch  one  lever 
and  then  look  at  me  to  see  if  that  was  right,  instead 
of  looking  to  see  what  effect  it  was  having  on  the  box. 
Characteristics  of  Children's  Thinking. — The 
thinking  of  children  has  been  compared  to  the  dream- 
ing of  adults.  Memory,  imagination,  and  feeling  are 
active,  but  judgment  is  unreliable.  Fantastic  beliefs 
exist  partly  because  the  child  has  had  little  experi- 


212  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

ence,  and  partly  because  he  has  not  the  capacity  to 
apply  critically  the  experience  which  he  has  had. 
Children's  minds  may  be  said  to  be  ''  pockety  " ;  they 
show  sudden  and  isolated  flashes  of  reasoning  power, 
but  they  lack  continuity,  and  cannot  be  relied  upon 
to  stay  reasonable.  It  was  said  in  an  earlier  chapter 
that  children's  physical  movements  are  rapid  and  ir- 
regular as  compared  with  those  of  adults,  and  there 
is  a  kind  of  parallel  to  this  in  mental  action.  The 
child  is  a  hasty  generalizer.  He  jumps  at  conclusions 
from  one  or  two  particulars,  and  having  made  his 
decision  he  has  little  desire  to  go  back  and  verify  it. 
I  have  found  more  than  once,  in  a  lesson  which  had 
been  prepared  with  all  the  prim  precision  of  the  Her- 
bartian  steps,  that  the  children  upon  whom  it  was 
tried  arrived  at  the  step  of  "  generalization  "  about 
twenty  minutes  too  soon,  and  had  no  further  interest 
in  additional  data  or  evidence.  The  power  to  sus- 
pend judgment,  to  gather  and  hold  in  solution  all 
the  evidence  on  a  question,  is  a  mature  achievement. 
Thinking  in  the  sense  of  classification  and  defini- 
tion, and  even  in  the  use  of  analogies,  begins  pretty 
early  in  the  child's  life,  and  is  associated  with  his 
growing  command  of  language.  Thinking  which 
involves  the  perception  of  necessary  connections, 
like  the  causal  law  in  nature,  or  logical  law  in  argu- 
ment, is  later  in  manifesting  itself.  Cause  and  effect 
are  first  realized  in  their  personal  form.     The  child. 


ASPECTS  OF  THINKING  PROCESS   213 

according-  to  universal  observation,  is  antliropomor- 
l)hic  in  his  ideas.  Animals,  for  him,  have  souls,  fire 
is  alive,  and  everything  which  moves  is  pushed 
around  by  somebody.  Even  various  parts  of  his  own 
body  are  sometimes  treated  as  if  they  were  animated 
by  a  separate  will.  Preyer  "  tells  about  a  child  who 
was  fond  of  feeding  biscuits  to  the  members  of  his 
family,  who  obligingly  took  the  proffered  pieces  into 
their  mouths.  One  day  he  was  seen  offering  a  biscuit 
to  his  own  foot,  "  sitting  on  the  floor,  holding  the 
biscuit  in  a  waiting  attitude  to  his  toes."  This 
anthropomorphic  tendency  continues  in  the  child's 
craving  for  personal  authority  in  his  thinking.  'No 
form  of  argument,  no  process  of  reasoning  has  the 
certainty  of  an  ipse  dixit  from  some  one  whom  he 
admires  and  trusts.  He  does  not  realize  that  adults 
have  to  depend  upon  mere  reasoning.  One  day  I 
heard  a  child  of  ten  ask  lier  teacher  for  the  product  of 
two  large  numbers.  The  teacher  put  the  figures  on 
the  board  and  began  to  perform  the  operation,  when 
the  child  said,  in  amazement,  "  Why,  you  have  to  do 
it  yourself !  "  She  thought  a  teacher  Avas  a  magazine 
of  answers,  and  apparently  saw  no  essential  connec- 
tion between  the  process  of  doing  the  work  and 
having  the  correct  product. 

Another  noticeable  trait  in  children  is  the  dis- 
position to  argue  on  the  basis  of  their  general  in- 
formation rather  than  to  keep  to  the  data  of  the 


214  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

problem.  In  criticising  the  syllogisms  given  in  the 
last  chapter,  several  children,  especially  in  the 
younger  group,  ignored  the  premises  and  decided  for 
or  against  the  conclusion  simply  from  their  experi- 
ence at  large.  In  answer  to  the  question  "  If  Santa 
Claus  has  reindeer,  and  the  Esquimaux  have  rein- 
deer, is  Santa  Claus  an  Esquimau  ?  "  the  following 
replies  were  made: 

"  I  can't  tell,  because  there  is  no  Santa  Claus." 

"I  can't  tell,  but  I  shouldn't  think  he  would  be.  He 
has  not  a  brown  face  like  the  Esquimaux." 

"  No,  Santa  Claus  is  not  an  Esquimau.  Esquimaux  do 
not  carry  toys  around  on  Christmas." 

"  The  old  sayings  say  he  is  like  everybody  he  goes  to 
and  so  I  suppose  he  changes  on  his  way  there,  so  he  is 
not  always  the  same.  But  most  of  the  time  I  think  he  is 
like  us,  by  us  I  mean  white  people.  He  can  have  reindeer, 
though,  without  being  an  Esquimau." 

In  response  to  the  question,  "  Some  song  birds  fly 
south  in  March,  and  the  meadow-lark  is  a  song  bird. 
Do  you  think  the  meadow-larks  fly  south  in  March  ?  " 
one  child  said  that  she  did  not  think  Miss  Clark  had 
told  them  about  meadow-larks  yet. 

An  interest  in  the  solution  of  puzzles  is  natural  to 
children,  and  this  interest  reaches  its  height,  accord- 
ing to  the  returns  of  Lindley,^°  at  the  ages  of  eleven, 
twelve,  and  thirteen.  Many  puzzles  afford  much  the 
sort  of  drill  which  mathematical  problems  do,  and 
they  have  been  recommended  by  mathematicians  for 


ASPECTS  OF  THINKING  PROCESS   215 

this  purpose.  The  ordinary  puzzle  does  not,  how- 
ever, require  a  knowledge  of  preliminary  theorems ;  it 
is  an  independent  little  enterprise.  This  fact,  which 
tends  to  lessen  the  interest  which  adults  take  in  puz- 
zles, is  no  bar  to  the  child.  Puzzles  are  intellectual 
games,  and  as  such  they  have  a  legitimate  place  in 
education. 

Can  Thinking  be  Taught? — If  mind  is  a  means 
of  adjusting  the  organism  to  its  environment,  then 
the  times  when  mental  activity  is  needed  are  the 
times  when  something  is  the  matter,  that  is,  when 
the  adjustment  is  incomplete  or  has  broken  down. 
Some  needs  are  regular  in  their  recurrence.  These 
we  can  anticipate  and  teach  ourselves  to  meet.  But 
the  occasions  which  require  most  thought  are  just 
those  which  we  have  not  been  taught  to  meet.  There 
seems  to  be  something  contrary  between  the  idea  of 
preparation  and  the  idea  of  meeting  emergencies. 
Thinking,  as  the  "  ability  to  deal  with  novel  data," 
varies  with  the  data,  and  as  soon  as  we  are  primed 
to  meet  an  emergency,  it  stops  being  novel.  The 
question,  "  Can  thinking  be  taught  ?  "  depends  upon 
that  other  question  which  we  met  above,  viz..  Are 
there  any  general  characteristics  of  the  thinking 
process?  If  every  act  of  thinking  is  original  and 
unique,  what  have  these  acts  in  common? 

For  answer  let  us  turn  back  to  the  preceding  chap- 
ters.     \Ye  found  that  there  have  been  various   at- 


216  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

tempts  to  define  thought  and  to  show  that  there  is 
common  ground  in  its  devious  forms.  If  we  were 
to  summarize  these  ideas  in  a  series  of  maxims  they 
might  read  as  follows :  Give  attention  to  the  classi- 
fication and  definition  of  your  experiences,  fitting 
them  under  the  proper  concepts  and  systematizing 
your  knowledge.  See  whether  you  can  "  reconcile 
opposites,"  by  finding  common  ground  or  a  general 
law  where  there  seems  only  opposition  and  chaos. 
Be  able  to  clarify  your  thinking  by  the  use  of  spatial 
diagrams  and  syllogistic  forms.  A  knowledge  of  the 
common  logical  fallacies  may  prove  convenient. 
Practise  translating  your  thoughts  into  equivalent 
expressions,  and  make  equations  among  your  ideas. 
When  a  desired  object  is  unattainable  ask  yourself, 
"  Can  I  substitute  a  similar  ?  "  In  solving  prob- 
lems get  a  clear  conception  of  what  it  is  that  you 
want  before  beginning.  Study  the  effect  of  your 
own  efforts  to  attain  the  end,  i.e.,  do  not  waste  your 
experimentation. 

The  teacher  who  makes  occasions  for  such  exer- 
cises is  doing  much  towards  teaching  a  child  to 
think.  In  addition,  the  stories  of  great  inventions 
should  be  given  to  children.  It  is  interesting  to  re- 
flect that  every  great  invention  or  discovery  may  be- 
come an  ansilogy,  or  furnish  a  metaphor  by  which 
we  come  nearer  to  an  understanding  of  thinking  in 
general,    j^ewton's  falling  apple  and  Galileo's  swing- 


ASPECTS  OF  THINKING  PROCESS       217 

iiiii"  lamp  have  become  symbols  for  the  perception 
of  large  principles  under  trivial  disguises.  Colum- 
bus's voyage  suggests  that  there  is  the  element  of  the 
indirect  in  all  thinking,  a  sailing  west  to  find  the 
east.  Every  great  act  of  reasoning  is  a  new  defini- 
tion of  reasoning.  'Ro  amount  of  instruction  will 
guarantee  that  a  child  will  be  able  to  think,  but  to 
show  him  what  thinking  is  may,  on  the  whole,  im- 
prove his  chances. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THETEANSFER   OF   TRAINING  AND   OF 
IDEAS 

The  Problem  Stated. — The  question  of  the  trans- 
fer of  training  is  simply  the  central  question  of  all 
education  under  a  new  name.  Does  general  prepara- 
tion exist,  or  is  training  gained  in  school  available 
for  life  ?  In  still  other  words,  is  formal  discipline  a 
fact,  and  will  studying  one  subject  give  mental  power 
which  can  be  used  in  another?  We  need  not  trace 
here  the  history  of  this  question,  nor  try  to  summarize 
the  very  considerable  literature  bearing  upon  it,  but 
some  few  paragraphs  are  needed  for  a  realization  of 
the  issues. 

There  is  constant  pressure  upon  the  school  to  jDut 
subjects  into  its  curriculum  which  shall  be  interest- 
ing in  their  content  and  readily  applicable  to  prac- 
tical situations.  The  traditional  subjects  are  often 
called  ''  formal  "  and  "  purely  disciplinary  "  with 
the  implication  that  they  are  taught  merely  for  the 
sake  of  a  general  effect  which  they  are  supposed  to 
produce.  An  extreme  theory  of  formal  discipline 
would  maintain   that   it  is  possible  to  find   studies 

218 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  219 

which  will  afford  such  mental  development  that  this 
power  can  be  applied  afterward  to  any  desired  end, 
a  power  which  is  detachable  from  the  conditions 
Avhich  produced  it. 

The  importance  of  transfer  is  evident  when  we 
reflect  that  if  it  does  not  exist  the  school  has  no  reason 
for  being.  Schools  are,  and  to  some  extent  must  be, 
abstractions  from  life.  If  it  were  always  possible  to 
"  learn  by  doing,"  formal  education  would  hardly 
have  become  a  separate  business.  We  find  that  for 
many  purposes  preliminary  exercises  are  necessary. 
We  cannot  begin  reading  Milton  until  we  have  paid 
some  attention  to  the  mechanics  of  reading.  Easy 
subject-matter  must  be  chosen  first,  and  content  sub- 
ordinated to  the  formal  side.  In  every  subject  which 
requires  teaching  at  all  one  must  at  some  time  turn 
attention  upon  this  formal  matter  of  the  technique 
or  method  of  the  subject. 

Transfer  Does  Exist. — The  very  existence  of  prac- 
tice effect  is  proof  that  transfer  of  some  sort  does 
take  place.  The  first  performances  in  a  series  carry 
over  to  later  ones,  modifying  and  transforming  them. 
Moreover,  we  find  that  wherever  thinking  occurs  there 
is  transfer  of  ideas.  Thinking  is  just  this  capacity 
of  applying  one  part  of  experience  to  another.  In 
addition  to  these  theoretical  considerations,  we  have 
the  published  opinions  of  thoughtful  men,  and  an 
amount  of  experimentation  to  support  our  belief. 


220  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

The  following  opinion  of  Hadley  of  Yale  is  cited  by 
Judd :  ^'^  ''  The  ideal  college  education  seems  to  me 
to  be  one  where  a  student  learns  things  that  he  is  not 
going  to  use  in  after  life,  by  methods  that  he  is  going 
to  use.  The  former  element  gives  the  breadth,  the 
latter  element  gives  the  training."  This  belief  that 
method  will  carry  over  to  things  not  studied  by  them 
is  expressed  also  by  Pearson  ^''^  when  he  says  that  his 
study  of  Greek  was  one  of  the  things  which  im- 
pressed upon  him  a  scientific  habit  of  mind,  although 
he  has  completely  forgotten  the  Greek  itself.  In- 
stances might  be  multiplied  in  which  the  study  of 
one  subject  has  served  men  as  a  pattern  of  precision 
for  others. 

The  experimental  evidence  on  transfer  is  neces- 
sarily confined  to  the  special  conditions  of  the  experi- 
ment in  each  case,  but  it  has  been  shown  to  exist 
under  a  variety  of  circumstances.  Typical  results 
in  the  field  of  sensory  discrimination  are  those  of  Ben- 
nett,"^ who  showed  that  training  in  the  discrimina- 
tion of  shades  of  blue  carries  with  it  a  marked  im- 
provement in  ability  to  discriminate  the  shades  of 
other  colors,  and  also,  though  in  less  degree,  an  im- 
proved ability  to  discern  changes  in  the  pitch  of 
musical  tones.  In  judgments  of  size  for  small  geo- 
metrical figures  Thorndike  ^^^  showed  that  there  is 
some  loss  of  practice  in  passing  from  one  kind  of 
figure  to  another,  but  his  tables  also  reveal  that  it 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  221 

is  not  all  lost,  that  there  is  some  transfer.  It  can 
be  easily  demonstrated  with  the  star-tracing  test  that 
the  skill  acquired  with  one  hand,  in  this  sensori- 
motor learning,  transfers  to  the  other  hand  in  some 
measure.  There  is  a  carrying  over  of  memory  prac- 
tice even  when  the  material  memorized  is  quite  dif- 
ferent in  type  in  the  two  cases. 

Limitations  of  Transfer. — Although  there  is  evi- 
dence that  transfer  is  possible,  yet  there  are  times 
when  it  fails  to  appear  where  we  might  most  con- 
fidently expect  it.  Lewis  ^^^  could  find  no  correlation 
between  reasoning  ability  in  classes  in  logic  and 
in  classes  in  law.  Bagley  ^"^  found  that  children 
trained  to  neatness  in  their  spelling-papers  were  en- 
tirely untrammeled  by  it  in  their  arithmetic-papers. 
However,  Ruediger,^^"  repeating  the  test,  found  that 
the  transfer  could  be  made  by  enlisting  the  children's 
interest  and  pride.  The  degree  of  transfer  is  vari- 
able, and  in  the  case  of  some  subjects,  and  of  some 
individuals,  is  very  meager. 

These  facts  have  been  used  as  arguments  against 
the  retention  of  the  formal  subjects  in  the  curriculum. 
Along  with  the  experimental  evidence  goes  the  testi- 
mony of  those  students  who,  unlike  the  Pearsons  and 
the  Hadleys,  did  not  carry  over  methods  from  their 
college  work  to  their  after  life.  It  is  said  that,  since 
training  in  Latin  and  Greek  may  bring  only  a  small 
return  in   transferred  effect,  it  would   be   better  to 


222  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

spend  the  time  upon  subjects  which  have  a  greater 
intrinsic  value.  Moreover,  if  study  in  one  branch 
does  transfer  to  others,  why  should  not  the  practical 
subjects  also  generate  this  power,  which  could  then 
transfer  from  them  ? 

One  result  of  the  discussion  over  transfer  we  ought 
to  keep  firmly  in  mind,  namely,  that  it  is  not  one 
question  which  is  involved,  but  a  thousand.  The 
effect  of  every  school  exercise  upon  every  subsequent 
occupation  must  be  studied  before  we  will  be  able 
to  speak  with  complete  certainty  on  transfer. 

Interference. — Training  in  one  type  of  skill  some- 
times reacts  unfavorably  upon  another,  even  though 
the  processes  may  be  somewhat  similar.  Here  is  a 
phenomenon  which  is  the  reverse  of  transfer.  The 
principle  on  which  this  occurs  is  readily  seen  in 
James's  illustration  where  he  quotes  these  two  lines : 

"  For  I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  pur- 
pose runs," 

and, 

"  I  the  heir  of  all  the  ages  in  the  foremost  files  of  time." 

It  is  easy  to  get  these  two  lines  tangled  by  reason  of 
the  common  element  the  ages,  since  this  i)hrase  has 
become  for  us  the  cue  to  two  diiferent  sequences. 
Just  so  in  playing  the  piano,  the  feeling  of  a  cer- 
tain   combination    of   finger   movements    may   have 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  223 

been  associated  in  the  past  with  passages  from  two 
different  selections,  and  thus  be  the  lever  for  prying- 
one  of  them  out  of  the  correct  sequence.  Common 
observation  furnishes  many  examples  of  old  habits 
interfering  with  new.  A  man  who  has  learned  to 
drive  one  make  of  automobile  will,  in  an  emergency, 
reach  the  wrong  way  on  his  new  car.  Experimental 
evidence  of  the  fact  of  interference  is  furnished  by 
the  early  tests  of  Bergstrom  ^^^  and  the  recent  ones 
of  Brown  ^^"  on  card-sorting.  When  a  subject  has 
distributed  cards  into  piles  according  to  a  prescribed 
order,  and  is  then  asked  to  re-sort  the  cards  according 
to  a  changed  plan,  it  takes  him  longer  to  do  the 
second  task.  This  interference  is  especially  notice- 
able for  short  time  intervals,  and  tends  to  disappear 
when  the  time  between  the  two  performances  is  in- 
creased. 

Sublimation. — There  is  another  question  which 
ought  logically  to  be  mentioned  in  a  discussion  of 
transfer,  namely,  to  what  extent  can  energy,  which 
would  normally  find  an  outlet  through  one  channel, 
be  drafted  off  into  another  and  turned  into  achieve- 
ment of  an  appreciable  sort.  Is  it  possible  by  sup- 
pressing one  activity  to  save  power  which  is  convert- 
ible into  other  form  ?  This  point  has  been  touched 
upon  in  pedagogical  literature  in  discussions  of  sex. 
The  idea  there  suggested  is  that  sexual  impulses 
represent  power  which  may  either  be  exhausted  in 


224  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

those  directions  which  the  impulses  themselves  indi- 
cate, or  may  be  sublimated  into  intellectual  activity. 
Freud  seems  to  feel  that  this  power  of  sublimation 
does  exist,  though  it  probably  varies  greatly  in  degree 
in  different  individuals. 

The  Method  of  Transfer. — The  theory  which 
Thorndike  proposed  in  his  early  work  on  this  problem 
is  that  transfer  from  one  situation  to  another  depends 
upon  there  being  identical  elements  in  the  two. 
This,  it  seems  probable,  is  a  fair  explanation  of 
many  instances  of  transfer,  though  some  qualifica- 
tions must  be  made.  Thus  there  may  be  common 
elements  which  produce  interference  instead  of  trans- 
fer, and  again  where  there  are  common  elements  the 
subject  may  fail  to  notice  or  to  benefit  by  them.  Judd 
Avrites  as  follows :  "  The  identical  element  is  usually 
contributed  by  the  generalizing  mind  .  .  .  there  may 
be  identical  elements  potentially  present  in  various 
situations,  but  v/holly  unobserved  by  the  untrained  or 
lethargic  mind.  .  .  .  The  problem  of  education  thus 
turns  out  to  be  the  problem  of  generalizing  experi- 
ence." 

The  responsibility  of  the  teacher  in  stimulating 
transfer,  or  the  application  of  training  to  a  new  situ- 
ation, is  emphasized  by  Judd,  as  it  is  by  all  writers 
upon  good  method  in  teaching.  Poor  method  isolates 
a  subject  in  a  child's  mind,  whereas  good  method 
brings  out  its  connections  with  other  fields.     In  the 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  225 

affair  of  the  neat  spelling-papers  quoted  above 
Ruediger  found  that  the  way  to  get  children  to  trans- 
fer the  new  habit  of  neatness  was  to  raise  it  to  the 
level  of  a  ''  conscious  ideal."  Quite  as  important  a 
factor  as  any,  in  the  matter  of  transfer,  is  the  atti- 
tude of  the  student  himself. 

The  alumnus  who  says  that  he  got  nothing  out 
of  his  school  training  invites  at  least  three  possible 
replies:  that  it  was  the  fault  of  the  school,  or  the 
fault  of  his  individual  instructors,  or  the  fault  of 
his  own  incapacity  or  indifference.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly the  duty  of  the  school  and  of  every  teacher  in  it 
to  make  its  training  applicable  to  real  life.  But  the 
best  school  in  the  world  cannot  live  the  student's  life 
for  him,  and  it  would  be  a  failure  indeed  if  it  did 
absolve  its  graduates  from  every  effort  of  their  own. 
As  the  cynic  says,  "  You  can  lead  a  fool  to  knowledge 
but  you  cannot  make  him  think,"  and  it  rests  with 
the  student  whether  he  is  going  to  get  the  practical 
value  out  of  his  schooling.  The  question  which  was 
raised  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  whether  train- 
ing gained  in  school  does  carry  over  to  life,  turns 
out  to  be  one  which  depends  for  its  answer  in  part 
upon  the  subjects  taught,  in  part  upon  the  methods 
of  teaching  them,  but  in  large  part  upon  the  deter- 
mination of  the  student  himself.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  student  to  himself,  to  his  school,  and  to  society 
to  make  his  training  effective. 


CHAPTER  XV 
ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL 

What  is  Attention? — We  say  that  a  person  is  at- 
tentive or  inattentive,  has  or  has  not  powers  of  con- 
centration, yet  when  we  try  to  tell  just  how  ''  the  at- 
tention "  differs  from  other  mental  processes  we  are 
at  a  loss.  There  is  little  that  can  be  said  of  atten- 
tion which  is  not  true  of  consciousness  in  general. 
We  shall  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  assume  that  attention 
is  the  name  for  a  special  degree  of  consciousness, 
or  that  it  is  consciousness  as  a  whole  brought  to  a 
focus.  When  we  are  "  thoroughly  conscious "  we 
are  attentive. 

Effects  of  Attention. — Are  there  special  results 
from  this  special  intensity  of  awareness  ?  If  so,  what 
happens  when  we  are  engrossed  in  this  high  degree 
of  consciousness  ?  In  general  every  department  or 
capacity  of  mind  becomes  more  effective.  Sense- 
perception  becomes  clearer.  We  mean  by  this  that 
a  more  detailed  and  accurate  account  of  things  per- 
ceived can  be  rendered  by  the  subject.  Memory  is 
more  reliable  and  persistent  when  the  original  impres- 
sion was  carefully  attended  to,  and  when  the  business 

226 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL      227 

of  recollection  is  carried  on  with  full  attention. 
Reaction  times  are  shortened  by  close  attention.  Fal- 
lacies in  reasoning  are  more  surely  detected,  and  prob- 
lems more  readily  solved.  The  term  "  concentra- 
tion "  implies  that  the  mind  is  massed,  so  to  speak, 
upon  some  central  point,  and  this,  in  turn,  implies 
that  it  is  withdrawn  from  other  possible  centers. 
This  conception  fits  the  facts,  for  one  of  the  signs  of 
intense  consciousness  in  one  direction  is  the  impervi- 
ous resistance  of  the  subject  in  others.  He  is  liter- 
ally unconscious  of  many  things  that  might  be 
expected  to  solicit  attention.  One  way  of  measuring 
attention  is  to  measure  the  strength  of  stimulus  which 
is  needed  to  distract  the  subject. 

Conditions  Favorable  to  Attention. — When  a 
given  topic  has  been  selected  for  a  person  to  attend  to, 
the  first  condition  of  success  is  the  absence  of  compet- 
ing topics.  This  does  not  mean  the  absence  of  all 
sensory  stimuli,  nor  even  the  greatest  possible  sup- 
pression of  all  external  sources  of  excitement,  because 
it  can  be  shown  that  the  cessation  of  a  stimulus,  as  in 
Gates's  ^^^  experiments,  may  be  as  distracting  as  the 
intrusion  of  one.  It  is  the  unusual  which  disturbs, 
whether  that  means  the  presence  or  absence  of  ex- 
citement. It  even  happens  that  some  persons  are 
stirred  to  more  effective  attention  when  a  slight 
degree  of  distracting  influence  is  present.  It  acts 
as  a  kind  of  challcnoe.     The  best  situation  for  con- 


£28 


EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


secutive  attention,  then,  is  a  normal  or  usual  amount 
of  sense-stimulation,  dead  silence  and  pitch  darkness 
being  unfavorable,  and  the  clear  superiority  of  one 
topic  of  thought  over  others.  Another  condition  is 
that  this  object  of  thought  shall  develop  and  change. 
"We  cannot  attend  for  more  than  a  few  seconds,  per- 
haps from  three  to  twenty-four,  to  a  single  simple 
object.  The  so-called  fluctuations  of  attention  have 
often  been  studied  with  minimal  stimuli,  and  it  ap- 


FlG.  21A. 


Fig.  21B. 


pears,  for  example  with  visual  sensation,  that  the 
intensity  of  the  stimulus  prolongs  the  periods  of 
visibility,  which  alternate  with  the  periods  of  invisi- 
bility. Similar  fluctuations  may  be  studied  in  the 
diagrams  of  Fig.  21,  though  we  might  call  them 
fluctuations  as  between  different  interpretations  of  the 
figures.  The  subject  fixates  the  middle  line  of  the 
book-cover  a,  and  records,  by  pressing  a  key  connected 
with  a  kymograph,  the  changes  as  the  middle  line 


Fig.  21C.     Gabriel  Max's  Ciikistus 
The  eyes  appear  to  open  and  close. 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL      229 

seems  now  near,  now  far.  The  same  procedure  is 
followcnl  for  h  and  c.  It  will  usually  be  found  that 
the  complex  objects,  the  shaded  blocks  and  the  face 
give  fewer  fluctuations  than  the  sinijiler  object,  the 
book-cover.  Published  results  on  this  point  may  be 
found  in  a  paper  by  Fliigel,^^*  and  in  one  by  me.*^*^ 
Whether  these  changes  depend  npon  "•  peripheral  " 
or  "  central  "  factors  does  not  concern  us  here,  since, 
on  either  supposition,  the  fact  of  complexity  of  figure 
and  the  fact  of  stability  of  interpretation  go  together. 
Can  we  attend  to  more  than  one  thiug  at  a  time, 
and  if  so,  how  many  ?  Tests  of  the  "  span  of  con- 
sciousness "  measure  the  number  of  impressions  or  of 
small  objects  which  can  be  correctly  apprehended  at 
a  given  instant  of  time.  For  visual  and  auditory 
impressions  this  number  is  about  five  to  seven.  The 
number  increases  somewhat  with  age,  but  according  to 
the  results  of  Whipple  "  is  not  susceptible  of  much 
increase  with  training.  There  is  always  a  difficulty 
in  interpreting  the  results  of  these  span-of-conscious- 
ness  tests,  for  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  subject 
is  able  by  means  of  an  after-image  to  count  up  the 
parts  afterwards  instead  of  grasping  them  by  a  single 
acft  of  attention  at  the  instant  of  exposure.  All  the 
more  is  one  inclined  to  some  such  explanation  since 
Angell  and  Pierce  ^^*^  have  shown,  in  the  complication 
experiment,  that  not  even  two  impressions,  at  least 
if  they   come   from   different   sense-organs,   can   be 


230  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

gra'sijed  at  precisely  the  same  instant.  What,  then, 
is  attention  doing  when  two  activities  like  writing 
and  singing  a  song  are  carried  on  simultaneously? 
There  are  two  alternatives.  If  one  of  the  perform- 
ances is  enough  mechanized  to  be  done  automati- 
cally, then  attention  is  occupied  with  the  other:  but 
if  both  require  attention,  there  is  not  a  distribution 
of  attention  over  both,  but  a  rapid  alternation  between 
them. 

Attention  Turns  to  the  Problematic. — Xot  for 
long  can  attention  be  absorbed  by  the  simple  and  the 
obvious.  The  business  of  consciousness  demands 
that  attention  be  present  where  work  is  to  be  done. 
Angell  and  Moore  ~^'^  have  shown  that,  in  reaction 
experiments  where  (a)  familiar  movements  have  been 
made  in  response  to  novel  forms  of  stimulation,  and 
(b)  novel  movements  have  been  made  in  response  to 
familiar  stimuli,  the  best  results  are  got  when  the 
subject  attends  to  that  part  of  the  combination  which 
is  unfamiliar,  whether  that  be  the  movement  or  the 
stimulus.  I  have  tried  ^^'^  the  simultaneous  exposure 
of  two  diagrams,  to  subjects  who  were  fixating  half- 
way between  them,  in  such  a  way  that  the  two  could 
be  seen  in  indirect  vision.  One  diagram  in  each  pair 
was  more  complex  than  the  other.  The  rule  under 
these  circumstances  is  for  the  subject  to  glance  first 
at  the  complex  figure.  lie  may  then  take  a  look  or 
so  at  the  simpler  one,  but  on  the  whole  he  will  spend 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL      231 

a  longer  time,  as  the  kymograph  records  indicate, 
examining  that  which  offers  the  greater  wealth  of 
detail. 

In  school  we  cannot  expect  to  hold  a  child's  atten- 
tion unless  we  can  engage  it  upon  some  problem  which 
is  real  to  the  child.  In  a  recitation  where  several 
children  are  called  upon  to  rehearse  the  same  material 
there  is  not  enough  change  for  the  child  who  knows 
his  lesson.  Of  course  not  every  question  asked  by 
a  teacher  arouses  the  curiosity  of  a  child,  but  it  is 
possible  to  discover  real  problems  by  watching  his 
spontaneous  desires. 

Kinds  of  Attention. — The  familiar  distinctions  be- 
tween sensorial  and  central,  direct  and  indirect  or 
derived,  and  voluntary  and  involuntary,  are  self- 
explanatory.  Sensorial  attention  is  said  to  be  char- 
acteristic of  children.  Their  centrally  excited  inter- 
ests are  not  fully  developed.  It  is  natural  for 
everybody  to  prefer  involuntary  and  direct  attention 
to  that  which  requires  effort  and  which  is  only  in- 
directly interesting,  but  adults  have  more  command 
over  themselves  in  this  respect.  Just  as  in  reason- 
ing it  takes  maturity  to  see  that  one  thing  necessarily 
depends  upon  another,  so  here  it  takes  some  degree 
of  development  to  appreciate  the  necessity  of  attend- 
ing to  one  thing  because  of  its  connection  with  an- 
other. Voluntary  attention  requires  effort,  and  this 
is  the  attention  which  cannot  long  be  held  upon  a 


232  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

task  unless  the  task  itself  takes  up  the  responsibility 
and  leads  over  into  involuntary  attention.  Attention 
is  easier  to  give  where  there  is  some  degree  of  ob- 
jective organization  in  the  matter  to  be  attended  to, 
and  those  things  capture  attention  which  offer  a  suc- 
cession of  steps  or  a  program  to  be  followed.  Volun- 
tary attention  is  demanded  where  there  has  been  a 
rupture  in  the  continuity  of  our  lives  and  where 
reason  and  will  are  necessary  to  establish  harmony. 
"When  a  plan  of  reconstruction  has  been  foreshadowed 
we  involuntarily  attend  to  the  working  out  of  the 
details.  Executing  a  program  is  an  intrinsically  in- 
teresting thing,  it  is  like  following  a  story.  The 
hard  thing  is  to  hold  oneself  to  a  question  before  any 
plan  or  program  has  suggested  itself,  and  this  is  the 
stage  at  which  we  must  pay  voluntary  attention. 

A  further  division  of  attention  distinguishes  the 
fixating  from  the  fluctuating  type.  In  the  one  the 
subject  keeps  clearly  before  him  a  restricted  part  of 
the  conscious  field,  and  in  the  other  his  mind  travels 
back  and  forth  over  a  wider  area.  Both  types  are 
normal,  nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  one  is  better  than 
the  other,  since  they  may  be  effective  for  different 
purposes.  Each  finds  a  parallel  in  abnormal  psy- 
chology. As  Pillsbury  ''^  says,  "  Two  forms  of 
change  may  be  noted  in  insanity :  the  general  instabil- 
ity of  attention  that  forbids  any  concentration,  as  in 
mania,    and   distorted   attention  that   gives   rise   to 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL      233 

fixed  ideas,  as  of  paranoia."  Other  typical  modes  of 
attending  which  have  been  distinguished  on  practical 
grounds  are  the  rhythmical  and  the  a-rhythmical. 
Thus  Piorkowski  "^  says  that  some  men  work  better 
wdiere  rhythmical  attention  is  needed,  as  in  tending 
certain  machines  the  worker  must  concentrate  at  regu- 
larly recurring  moments,  between  which  times,  how- 
ever, he  may  relax.  In  other  businesses  the  need  for 
concentration  may  come  at  irregular  intervals. 

Attention  and  Feeling. — It  is  sometimes  said  that 
attention  and  feeling  are  enemies,  for  if  we  attend 
to  a  feeling  we  lower  its  vividness,  and  moments  of 
deep  feeling  are  said  to  be  moments  unfavorable  to 
strict  attention  to  intellectual  concerns.  In  the  first 
case,  it  is  true  of  mental  life  in  general  that  if  we 
attend  to  a  process  as  such  we  interrupt  it.  If  we 
watch  ourselves  perceive  we  interrupt  the  perception, 
but  if  we  attend  to  the  object  perceived  we  tend  to 
keep  the  perception  vivid.  It  is  the  same  with  feel- 
ing ;  if  we  attend  to  the  object  or  circumstances  which 
roused  the  feeling,  not  to  the  feeling  itself,  we  but 
intensify  the  feeling.  Where  deep  emotion  is  in- 
volved, attention  is  not  dispersed  or  in  abeyance,  it 
is  keenly  alert  so  far  as  those  objects  are  concerned 
which  aroused  the  emotion.  Attention  and  feeling, 
far  from  being  inimical  to  each  other,  are  mutually 
dependent.  That  sustained  or  recurrent  feeling  for 
things  which  we  call  interest  is  one  of  the  closest  cor- 


234  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

relates  of  attention.  We  attend  because  things  are 
interesting,  and  things  become  interesting  because  we 
attend.  Thus,  "  interesting  objects  "  and  "  atten- 
tion "  are  reciprocal  notions.  Just  as  we  associate 
capacity  to  attend  with  high  intelligence,  so  may  we 
regard  interest  as  a  sign  of  intelligence.  It  is  easier 
to  interest  intelligent  people  than  unintelligent  in  a 
new  thing  because  the  former  see  more  in  it,  for  them 
it  opens  up  vistas  and  has  that  complexity  which 
we  found  to  be  the  condition  of  attention. 

The  Function  of  Feeling  Is  to  Unify. — Definitions 
of  feeling  are  hard  to  give,  because  to  feel  a  feeling 
is  the  only  real  knowledge  of  it.  There  are  two  ways 
of  classifying  feelings  which  we  shall  mention.  If 
one  is  impressed  with  the  multiplicity  and  variety  of 
experiences  which  are  commonly  called  feelings  one 
finds  oneself  in  sympathy  with  the  theory  of  Wundt.^*" 
Feelings  are  a-many,  according  to  Wundt,  since  each 
cognitive  experience  is  accompanied  by  a  feeling 
which  is  peculiar  to  that  experience,  and  all  combina- 
tions of  cognitions  have  feelings  peculiar  to  the  com- 
bination. There  are,  he  holds,  several  grand  divisions 
among  feelings,  viz.,  pleasurable  and  unpleasurable, 
exciting  and  depressing,  and  those  involving  tension 
and  relaxation.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  the  theory 
of  Kiilpe  ^^'^  which  says  that  there  are  but  two  kinds 
of  feeling,  the  pleasant  and  the  unpleasant,  and  that 
all  these  other  experiences,  if  we  only  examine  them 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL       235 

carefully  oiioiic;li,  prove  to  be  composed  of  sensory 
elements  combined  in  various  ways.  As  for  your 
feeling  about  anything,  you  like  it  or  you  do  not,  and 
that  is  the  end.  This  theory  emphasizes  the  unity  of 
the  affective  life  and  its  simplicity.  It  seems  pos- 
sible to  combine  certain  aspects  of  these  two  theories 
under  the  conception  that  feeling  is  the  unifying  ele- 
ment, the  generalized  aspect,  of  all  consciousness. 
For  argument  on  this  point  the  reader  is  referred  to  a 
series  of  articles  ^^^  which  would  take  us  too  far  afield 
to  quote. 

"  Eeason,"  said  the  candid  Hume,  "  is  and  forever 
must  be  the  slave  of  passion."  It  is  feeling,  that  is, 
which  brings  to  a  focus  the  powers  of  thought.  The 
bearing  of  this  on  education  is  hinted  at  in  this  pas- 
sage from  Henry  James,  in  "  A  Small  Boy  and 
Others  " : 

He  was  to  enjoy  more  than  anything  the  so  far  from 
showy  practice  of  wondering  and  dawdling  and  gaping: 
he  was  really,  I  think,  much  to  profit  by  it.  What  it  at 
all  appreciably  gave  him — that  is,  gave  him  in  producible 
form— would  be  difficult  to  state;  but  it  seems  to  him,  as 
he  even  now  indulges  himself,  an  education  like  another: 
feeling,  as  he  has  come  to  do  more  and  more,  that  no  edu- 
cation avails  for  the  intelligence  that  doesn't  stir  in  it 
some  subjective  passion,  and  that  on  the  other  hand  almost 
anything  that  does  so  act  is  largely  educative,  however 
small  a  figure  the  process  might  make  in  a  scheme  of 
training.  Strange  indeed,  furthermore,  are  some  of  the 
things  that  have  stirred  a  subjective  passion — stirred  it, 
I  mean,  in  young  persons  predisposed  to  a  more  or  less 
fine,  inspired  application. 


236  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

To  find  the  thing  which  shall  stir  this  passion, 
which  can  stimulate  this  ''  fine  inspired  application," 
is  to  find  the  emotional  nucleus  of  the  child's  char- 
acter. 

The  Control  of  Feeling. — Time  was  when  the  edu- 
cation of  feeling  meant  merely  the  checking  and 
suppressing  of  desire.  We  mean  by  it  now  an  in- 
telligent control  which  shall  finally  bring  the  best 
eventual  satisfaction.  It  is  through  a  knowledge  of 
the  objects  of  desire  that  desire  itself  must  be  ap- 
proached. The  method  of  gratifying  our  desires  is 
no  other  than  the  method  of  the  reasoning  process. 
It  means  generalization  and  a  search  for  the  middle 
term.     A  few  illustrations  may  clear  this  point. 

A  man  wants  the  ten  o'clock  train  to  ISTew  York 
but  gets  to  the  station  too  late.  Now,  if  literally 
nothing  but  the  ten  o'clock  train  to  New  York  on 
this  day  will  satisfy  him,  he  must  put  up  with  his 
disappointment.  But  if  he  analyzes  his  wish,  and 
says,  "  What  I  want  is  to  get  to  New  York,"  he  may 
then  look  around  for  an  automobile  and  jump  in.  If 
his  analysis  results  in  the  remark,  "  What  I  want  is 
to  get  out  of  here  quick,"  he  may  jump  on  the  next 
train  no  matter  where  it  goes.  In  either  case  he 
has  picked  out  a  part  of  his  original  desire  as  essen- 
tial and  a  part  as  unessential.  A  woman  goes  shop- 
ping for  a  hat,  and  soon  finds  what  she  wants,  but 
it  costs  too  much,     If,  upon  reflection,  she  realizes 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL      237 

that  what  she  wants  is  not  that  hat  at  any  cost,  but 
a  hat  very  like  that  plus  a  few  other  necessaries,  she 
may  be  said  to  have  substituted  a  similar.  Again,  a 
girl  who  had  hemmed  a  towel  found  that  it  was  six 
inches  too  long,  whereupon  she  cuts  three  inches  off 
each  end  and  rehemmed  them  both.  She  failed  to  see 
that  one  end  could  stay  as  it  was,  that  it  formed  a 
common  element  between  what  she  already  had,  her 
data,  and  what  she  desired,  her  desiderata.  In  each 
of  these  cases  the  road  to  success  lies  in  the  analysis 
of  the  thing  desired,  with  a  view  to  selecting  what  is 
attainable  or  even  already  attained.  Tlie  perception 
of  any  similarity  or  identity  between  the  object  and 
the  data  is  a  step  towards  realization. 

A  knowledge  of  our  own  desires,  a  realization  of 
our  own  tastes,  is  the  first  condition  of  any  real 
morality,  because,  without  this,  organized  effort  is  not 

possible. 

The  Will  or  Self-Control. — The  curriculum,  one 
may  sometimes  feel,  is  designed  only  for  the  training 
of  the  child's  logical  or  cognitive  powers,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  his  esthetic  and  ethical  interests.  A  com- 
plete education  must  develop  judgment,  taste,  and 
character.  Instruction  in  the  arts  is  winning  its  due 
recognition  in  recent  years,  but  there  remains  the 
question  of  moral  training.  There  is  divergence 
of  opinion  as  to  the  form  which  ethical  influence 
should  take  in  the  school.      Some  believe  that  there 


238  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

should  be  direct  ethical  instruction  in  the  classroom, 
beginning  with  the  stories  of  heroes  for  the  youngest 
children,  and  gradually  working  up  to  the  explicit 
discussion  of  moral  questions  and  codes  for  the  chil- 
dren of  high-school  age.  Those  who  oppose  such  a 
program  do  it  on  the  assumption  that  every  school 
exercise  and  situation  may  be  made  to  contribute  to 
moral  growth  and  is  more  likely  to  do  so  if  it  is  not 
made  the  subject  of  explicit  comment  or  lecturing. 
Morals  is  not  a  separate  branch  to  be  taught,  they 
would  say,  but  is  the  conduct  of  life  as  a  whole,  or  is 
viewing  things  with  reference  to  some  whole. 

Moral  training  with  very  young  children  means 
the  formation,  largely  by  imitation,  of  habits  which 
society  deems  desirable.  It  is  useless  to  discuss  with 
them  abstruse  conceptions.  I  heard  a  teacher  reprove 
a  six-year-old  boy  for  singing  a  song  about  "my 
kitty,"  because,  she  explained,  it  was  a  sign  of 
egotism.  Self-suppression  can  scarcely  be  taught 
until  the  child  has  some  realization  of  what  a  self  is. 
Habits  of  acting  with  a  group  can  be  formed  at  an 
early  age,  but  not  a  conscious  altruism. 

As  soon,  however,  as  a  boy  or  girl  is  old  enough 
to  think  in  general  terms,  or  is  able  to  see  anything 
"  as  a  whole,"  there  is  every  reason  why  his  own 
conduct  should  be  viewed  by  him  as  a  whole.  This 
is  the  conscious  ethical  attitude.  With  adolescent 
children  direct  discussion  of  moral  problems  is  ad- 


ATTENTION,  FEELING,  AND  WILL      239 

visable.  Thej  like  it  and  need  it.  Control  of  what- 
ever sort  means  a  reference  to  some  central  principle 
or  standard,  and  the  control  of  self  presupposes  an 
ideal  self  as  a  unifying  principle.  This,  then,  is  the 
great  moral  obligation  of  the  school,— to  lead  the 
child  to  view  his  conduct  as  a  whole,  and  to  help  him 
build  his  ideal  self. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    PSYCHOLOGY   OF   LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 

Language  a  Social  Product. — The  branch  of  in- 
struction which  bulks  largest  in  the  school  curriculum 
is  language,  if  we  include  in  language  the  study  of 
reading,  writing,  spelling,  composition,  literature, 
and  foreign  tongues.  This  prominence  is  due  in  part 
no  doubt  to  a  traditional  respect  for  linguistic  attain- 
ments, but  also  to  the  immensely  important  func- 
tion which  language  fulfils  psychologically. 

Language  is  the  chief  means  of  conveying  thought 
from  one  person  to  another.  It  is  thus  a  social  in- 
strument. There  is  a  certain  contrast  between 
thought  and  speech;  for  thinking  is  a  private  affair 
at  first,  a  subjective  happening,  whereas  speaking 
implies  the  presence  of  others,  and  hence  is  objective. 
A  common  tongu«e  is  a  common  bond  which  unites 
separate  individuals  into  a  spiritual  Avholc.  But 
what  is  the  universal  desire  which  impels  men  to  talk 
to  one  another?  Why  should  a  common  language 
unite  men  more  than  a  common  color  or  a  common 
stature?     Language   unites   men   because   they   can 

340 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING    241 

Avork  with  it  upon  each  other.  It  is,  in  brief,  a  cry 
for  help.  It  is  a  means  of  getting  others  to  do  things 
for  us  and  with  ns,  and  it  thus  becomes  an  instrument 
for  us  in  that  never-ending  process  of  adjusting  our- 
selves to  the  environment.  It  is  the  chief  lever  for 
setting  group  activity  in  motion.  As  the  forms  of 
group  action  become  intricate  and  refined,  so  do  the 
uses  of  speech  become  complex  and  ceremonious,  and 
the  business  of  commanding  or  persuading  others  to 
help  us  resolves  itself  into  the  business  of  pleasing 
others.  Other  uses  of  language  arise ;  but  originally, 
it  would  seem,  it  is  useful  because  it  supplements 
wdiatever  form  of  doing  the  individual  may  be  en- 
gaged in.  Language  becomes  a  stick  to  hit  with,  or 
an  added  hand  for  the  harvest.  In  whatever  under- 
taking the  help  of  others  is  desired,  language  repre- 
sents power. 

Thought  Is  Influenced  by  Its  Expression. — The 
most  complete  expression  of  a  thought  is  an  overt  act 
of  some  kind.  At  least  this  is  true  if  all  thinking  is  for 
the  sake,  eventually,  of  some  kind  of  doing.  It  is  hard 
to  get  people  to  think  about  things  which  will  never 
influence  their  activities,  and  we  have  no  evidence 
that  mental  life  can  go  on  where  all  possibilities  of 
motor  response  are  paralyzed.  Expression,  used  in 
the  sense  of  outcome  of  some  kind,  is  essential  to  any 
continued  or  vigorous  thought  life.  The  outcome  of 
thought,  however,  may  be  long  deferred.     Plans  may 


242  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

be  a  lifetime  in  realization,  or  they  may  come  to 
fruition  only  for  future  generations.  In  the  mean- 
while they  must  be  preserved.  Herein  lies  another 
function  of  the  medium  of  expression.  It  is  a  half- 
way station  between  the  thought  and  the  act,  or,  to 
change  the  comparison,  it  is  a  precipitate  from 
thought  but  it  holds  the  act  in  solution.  These 
media  of  expression,  these  relay  stations  between 
thought  and  its  perfect  fulfilment,  are  of  many  kinds. 
The  arts  oifer  one  great  group  of  media,  individuals 
sometimes  develop  symbols  and  mnemonic  devices  of 
their  own,  but  the  most  universal  and  flexible  of  all  is 
language. 

Thinking  cannot  be  said  to  be  entirely  dependent 
upon  language  since  other  forms  of  expression  are 
open  to  it,  but  its  actual  very  great  subordination  to 
it  is  everywhere  witnessed.  Thinking  is  the  conver- 
sation of  the  soul  with  herself,  said  Socrates.  And 
many  a  man  since  has  told  how  thinking  goes  on  in 
the  forms  of  internal  speech  and  dialogue.  This  habit 
of  talking  to  oneself  and  the  habit  of  writing  things 
out  for  oneself  have  become  widely  recognized  peda- 
gogically  as  the  prime  means  of  pruning,  improving, 
and  clarifying  one's  own  thought.  It  is  small  won- 
der, therefore,  that  language  teaching  occupies  so 
large  a  part  of  school  work. 

Development  of  Language  in  Early  Childhood. — 
The  raw  material  of  speech,  in  the  shaj^e  of  vocaliza- 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING    2t3 

tion,  is  present  within  the  first  six  or  eight  months  of 
the  child's  life.  But  speech  itself,  used  with  inten- 
tion, begins,  as  we  saw  above,  in  abont  the  fifteenth 
or  sixteenth  month.  Studies  have  been  made  to 
ascertain  what  kind  of  words  the  child  first  uses. 
Tracy,^^'  who  summarized  the  vocabularies  of  twelve 
children  whose  ages  lay  between  one  and  a  half  and  two 
and  a  half  years,  gives  these  percentages :  nouns  60, 
verbs  20,  adjectives  9,  adverbs  5,  pronouns  2,  preposi- 
tions 2,  interjections  1.7,  and  conjunctions  0.3.  As 
compared  with  the  proportions  in  an  adult  vocabu- 
lary, Tracy  calculates  that  the  child  uses  a  larger 
proportion  of  verbs  or  words  of  action  than  does  the 
adult.  A  more  recent  summary  by  Grant  ^^^  of  vari- 
ous published  vocabularies  confirms  approximately 
these  percentages. 

The  student  of  child  psychology  must  be  cautious 
in  assuming  that  a  child  begins  to  talk  in  certain  parts 
of  speech  rather  than  others,  until  he  is  sure  with 
what  meaning  or  intention  the  child  utters  the  sounds. 
The  following  passage  from  Sully  °^  is  pertinent : 

At  first  .  .  .  there  is  no  sentence-structure.  The  child 
begins  to  talk  by  using-  single  words  .  .  .  substantives. 
...  In  speaking  of  these  words  as  substantives,  adjectives, 
and  so  forth,  I  am  merely  adopting  a  convenient  mode  of 
description.  We  must  not  suppose  that  the  words  as  used 
in  this  simple  disjointed  talk  have  their  full  grammatical 
value.  It  is  not  generally  recognized  that  the  single- 
worded  utterance  of  the  child  is  an  abbreviated  sentence  or 
"  sentence-word  "  analogous  to  the  sentence-words  found 


244  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

in  the  simplest  known  stage  of  adult  language.     As  with 
the  race  so  with  the  child,  the  sentence  precedes  the  word. 

Are  these  sentence-words  to  be  understood  as 
declaratives  ?  Pillsbnry  suggests  ^^^^  that  the  sim- 
plest and  earliest  form  into  which  a  judgment 
is  translated  is  interjectional,  like  the  cry  of 
^' Wolf !  "  or  ''Fire!"  In  a  recent  study  by 
Snyder  ^^^  on  the  talk  of  a  boy  two  and  a  half 
years  old,  special  attention  was  paid  to  sentence 
types.  A  large  proportion  proved  to  be  imperatives, 
and  the  author  also  says  that  many  sentences  which 
were  declarative  or  interrogative  in  form  were  clearly 
imperative  in  their  intent.  This  bears  out  the  idea 
that  the  primary  use  of  language  is  to  control  persons. 

The  child  gradually  elaborates  his  first  sentence- 
words  into  fuller  forms.  The  use  of  pronouns  comes 
late,  since  it  is  hard  for  him  to  realize  that  their 
meaning  varies  according  to  the  speaker.  Articles, 
prepositions,  and  conjunctions,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
part  of  the  more  abstract  machinery  of  language  and 
do  not  attach  to  perceptible  events  or  objects,  are 
also  late  in  being  mastered. 

The  child  first  works  at  language  for  practical 
purposes  and  by  imitation,  but  there  comes  a  period  in 
his  growth,  near  the  tenth  and  eleventh  year,  when  he 
begins  to  realize  the  function,  almost  the  theory,  of 
language  and  to  be  much  interested  in  the  idea.  A 
form  of  play  which  seems  to  spring  up  spontaneously 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING   245 

at  this  age  is  the  development  of  codes,  and  the  mak- 
iiio-  of  secret  languages  of  their  own  by  groups  of 
children. 

Let  us  see  how  some  of  these  points  about  the 
growth  and  meaning  of  language  are  taken  account 
of  in  the  teaching  of  the  schools. 

Executing  Instructions. — There  is  an  exercise 
used  in  the  teaching  of  foreign  languages  which  might 
be  employed  with  advantage  in  the  mother  tongue. 
Commands  are  given  by  the  teacher  and  carried  out 
by  the  pupil  as  a  test  of  the  understanding  of  the 
words.  The  pupils  then  take  turns  giving  commands 
for  the  others  to  execute.  This  keeps  word  and  ac- 
tion closely  associated  for  the  child,  and  it  trains  him 
to  make  himself  understood.  It  is  interesting  to  no- 
tice that  exercises  of  this  kind  are  utilized  by  psy- 
chologists in  diagnosing  mental  status.  Ability  to 
follow  verbal  directions  correlates  with  intelligence. 

A  device  lately  published  is  this :  "°  One  child 
describes  to  the  class  a  scene  which  he  has  visited. 
He  makes  the  details  of  his  picture  as  explicit  as  he 
can,  and  the  others  each  paint  with  colors  the  scene 
as  they  think  it  is  from  his  description.  The  first 
one  then  criticizes  their  pictures  and  chooses  the 
one  which  tallies  best  with  the  thing  as  he  actually 
saw  it.  But  in  the  course  of  his  criticisms  they 
answer  with  criticisms  of  his  description.  By  this 
give  and  take,  they  come  to  an  appreciation  of  the 


246  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

way  in  which  things  must  be  expressed  in  order  to 
"  get  them  across." 

Oral  Composition. — The  modern  school  has 
wakened  to  the  fact  that  spoken  as  well  as  written 
language  has  to  be  composed.  As  Chubb  "^  says, 
wherever  there  is  expression  there  is  composition. 
Oral  language  is  prior  both  in  time  and  in  impor- 
tance in  the  lives  of  the  majority  of  school  children. 
Another  reason  for  early  attention  to  oral  composi- 
tion is  that  style  in  speaking  is  usually  the  source  of 
good  style  in  writing.  Discourse  is  to  the  written 
page  what  the  clay  model  is  to  the  marble ;  speech 
is  changeful,  tentative,  original,  while  writing  is 
just  this  same  talking  copied  and  corrected  into 
harder  form.  Teachers  find  that  a  class  discussion  of 
a  given  topic  is  most  effective  in  stimulating  fluency 
in  writing.  In  a  discussion  there  is  less  chance  to 
dream  and  procrastinate  and  chew  the  pencil,  people 
are  waiting  and  the  stimulus  to  speak  is  strong. 
Afterwards  Avhen  the  child  sits  down  to  write  it  all 
out,  he  has  something  to  begin  on. 

Kinds  of  Composition.  Report. — Description, 
narration,  and  exposition  are  all  forms  of  report. 
Perhaps  the  simplest  form  of  composition  is  the 
telling  of  things,  how  they  happened.  In  narration 
the  order  of  relating  the  items  is  largely  fixed  by  the 
actual  order  of  events,  whereas  in  description  or  ex- 
position one  must  choose  the  order  from  several  pos- 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING   247 

sil)le  arrangements.  One  has  onlj  to  remember  that 
narration  is  storj^-telling  and  already  holds  a  high 
place  in  the  child's  regard  to  choose  this  as  a  starting 
point.  In  story-telling  exercises  children  should 
have  the  chance  to  tell  the  stories  to  each  other.  If 
care  is  taken  that  the  stories  shall  be  new  to  the 
group,  they  (the  group)  will  take  care  that  the  speaker 
shall  be  clear :  they  will  clamor  for  details,  and  by 
their  eagerness  to  know  the  story  will  force  the 
raconteur  to  correct  his  shortcomings.  For  written 
narration  and  description  teachers  sometimes  arrange 
for  an  interchange  of  letters  between  different  schools. 
Diaries  are  another  occasion  for  such  forms  of  writ- 
ing. But  perhaps  best  of  all  is  writing  for  the  school 
paper,  which  should  be  kept  very  much  in  the  hands 
of  the  children  themselves  if  it  is  to  prove  a  genuine 
stimulus. 

Poetry  and  the  Drama. — As  for  other  types  of 
composition,  the  division  should  not  be  confined  to  the 
traditional  four,  description,  narration,  exposition, 
argumentation,  but  should  rather  be  based  on  the 
natural  divisions  of  literature  itself.  The  writing  of 
poetry  most  certainly  should  be  encouraged  and  at 
an  early  age.  The  work  of  the  Perse  School  in  Cam- 
bridge, not  to  mention  other  less  conspicuous  experi- 
ments, proves  that  the  writing  of  poetry,  if  teachers 
will  have  it  so,  is  not  more  formidable  than  the  writ- 
ing of  prose.     "  ^Vliv  encourage  the  scribbling  of  bad 


S48  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

poetry  ?  "  some  one  asks.  But  cliildren's  poetry  is 
not  necessarily  bad  any  more  than  their  prose  is  bad. 
A  boy  of  twelve  does  not  write  the  prose  of  Sir 
Thomas  Browne.  Children's  writing,  whether  prose 
or  poetry,  is  childlike  but  not  always  bad.  Much  the 
same  comment  applies  to  the  writing  of  drama. 
Dramatization,  however,  is  becoming  so  much  the 
vogue  as  a  general  method  in  the  teaching  of  many 
subjects,  that  its  place  is  fairly  secured  in  the  Eng- 
lish course.  The  giving  of  plays,  and  the  writing  of 
plays  to  give,  deserve,  and  are  getting  in  the  newer 
schools,  a  big  proportion  of  the  time  devoted  to  lan- 
guage instruction. 

Imitation  of  Models. — The  fear  is  now  and  then 
expressed  that  the  deliberate  imitation  of  other  peo- 
ple's writing  will  engender  a  slavish  habit  of  mind 
and  ruin  the  pupil's  originality.  The  danger  is 
slight.  .Imitation,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  normal  way 
of  learning  most  things.  Originality  wastes  itself 
unless  it  can  improve  upon  forms  already  known. 
Hence  a  knowledge  of  these  forms  and  a  capacity  to 
wield  them  at  will  is  the  surest  means  of  coming 
upon  something  newer  and  better  than  they.  Apply- 
ing this  to  the  study  of  linguistic  style,  Ave  may  safely 
say  that  he  who  is  able  if  he  likes  to  write  in  the 
style  of  many  another  is  the  more  likely  to  master 
a  style  of  his  own.  By  imitation  we  know  things, 
and  this  practice  reacts  not  only  upon  composition  but 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  249 

also  upon  the  understanding  of  literature.  It  hap- 
jDens  sometimes,  also,  that  by  imitating  the  manner  of 
some  great  practitioner  of  an  art  a  new  masterpiece  is 
produced.  The  man  who  develops  a  given  style  does 
not  necessarily  exhaust  it.  The  anecdote  is  told  of 
Paderewski  that  his  famous  minuet  was  written  as  a 
practical  joke  upon  his  teacher.  The  boy  took  the 
composition  to  his  master  with  some  story  about  hav- 
ing found  it  in  a  forgotten  edition  of  Mozart. 
^Yhether  the  incident  is  literally  true  or  not,  we  have 
in  the  minuet  something  graceful  aud  new,  but  writ- 
ten in  an  old  style. 

Correlation  of  Composition  with  Other  Subjects. — 
It  has  been  the  general  custom  in  the  past  to  set 
apart  a  prescribed  number  of  hours  per  week  for  class 
work  in  composition.  Topics  have  been  assigned,  or 
an  approved  list  submitted  to  the  class,  and  the  chil- 
dren have  then  set  about  gathering  material  upon 
these  topics,  ^o  small  amount  of  spiritual  anguish 
has  gone  into  the  child's  choosing  of  subjects  to  write 
about.  An  improvement  upon  this  plan  is  found  in 
schools  which  correlate  the  English  essay  writing  with 
the  work  of  other  departments.  The  subject-matter 
is  not  selected  independently  by  the  English  teacher, 
but  it  is  something  with  which  the  child  is  con- 
cerned in  his  history,  or  geography,  or  manual  arts. 
Each  essay  is  discussed  with  the  student  in  advance 
by  the  two  instructors,  the  one  advising  on  material. 


250  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  other  on  form.  Both  criticize  the  essay  when  it  is 
done.  The  sciences  offer  abundant  material  for  ex- 
pository writing,  and  history  for  narration.  By  such 
a  plan  the  child  is  relieved  from  writing  on  subjects 
about  which  he  has  no  data,  and  at  the  same  time  his 
responsibility  is  doubly  enhanced.  He  knows  that  he 
is  accountable  for  the  correctness  of  his  facts,  since 
no  paper  is  "  only  "  an  essay  written  for  the  sake  of 
the  style;  and  he  knows  that  the  question  of  cor- 
rect expression  will  be  raised  no  matter  for  what  class 
he  is  writing.  He  can  no  longer  segregate  his  Eng- 
lish. 

Accuracy  of  Expression.  Paraphrase  and  Trans- 
lation.— The  subject  which  is  credited  with  giving 
discipline  in  accuracy  is  mathematics,  and  rightly 
so  no  doubt.  Yet  one  of  the  foremost  aims  of  the 
language  teacher  is  to  cultivate  precision  in  the  ad- 
justment of  words  to  meanings.  To  speak  the  exact 
truth  on  any  complex  matter,  or  to  give  a  faithful 
description,  requires  the  same  keen  intelligence,  the 
same  delicate  feeling  for  differences,  in  a  word  the 
same  scruj)le,  which  mathematical  reasoning  involves. 
To  say  exactly  what  you  know  and  no  more  is  the 
work  of  the  expert  witness.  It  is  excellent  training 
for  children.  A  quaint  story  is  told  of  John  Woolman 
apropos  of  his  precise  and  careful  regard  for  truth 
even  upon  the  most  trifling  matters.  So  painstaking 
he  was  that  his  friends  sometimes  tried  to  lay  traps 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING   251 

ill  order  to  catoli  him  in  some  imwarraiited  assump- 
tion. One  evening  two  boys  agreed  to  go  to  his  house 
to  call  upon  him.  One  went  first  and  was  shown  into 
the  library,  where  he  sat  talking  to  Woolman  when 
the  other  rang  the  bell  at  the  door.  Woolman  went 
to  the  door.  ]^ow,  the  plan  was  that  the  first  boy 
should  escape  by  the  window,  and  when  the  second 
asked,  "Is  my  friend  in  your  house  ?  "  it  was  ex- 
pected that  Woolman  would  of  course  answer  yes,  and 
thus  be  caught  in  an  untrue  statement.  All  went  as 
scheduled.  But  when  the  boy  at  the  door  asked, 
"  Is  my  friend  here  ?  "  Woolman  replied,  "  I  left 
him  in  the  library." 

The  use  of  paraphrase  is  analogous  to  the  use  of 
translation  from  a  foreign  language,  and  similar  edu- 
cational advantage  may  be  gained  from  the  two.  As 
we  have  seen,  the  making  of  equations  or  the  finding 
of  equivalents  is  the  very  heart  of  the  thinking 
process.  To  know  a  thing  is,  logically  at  least,  to  be 
able  to  re-word  it.  One  of  the  chief  values  of  foreign 
language  study  is  that  it  is  a  medium  for  conveying 
ideas  which  must  be  held,  as  it  were,  in  solution  by 
the  student  until  he  can  re-express  them  in  his  own 
terms.  Other  forms  of  exercise  akin  to  this  re- 
phrasing are  the  expansion  and  condensation  of  given 
material.  The  filling  out  of  a  story  or  the  elabo- 
ration of  an  argument  requires  fertility  of  associa- 
tion and  the  power  of  organizing,  new  material  under 


252  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  old.  The  capacity  to  "  see  "  a  story  in  a  meager 
incident — to  have  the  news  sense — is  a  gift  of  a  high 
order  and  one  which  the  school  should  lose  no  chance 
to  encourage.  On  the  other  hand,  practice  in  cutting 
down  to  the  most  economical  form  in  which  an  idea 
can  be  conveyed  contributes  force  and  restraint  to 
style.  Such  drills  as  condensing  newspaper  articles 
or  writing  telegrams  have  this  use. 

One  objection  to  the  above  practice  has  justice  in 
it,  namely,  that  in  paraphrase  and  translation  the 
student  is  putting  into  mediocre  shape  that  which  may 
already  be  in  the  best  form.  This  is  true  of  writing 
which  is  artistically  good ;  for,  in  the  work  of  art, 
thought  and  its  vehicle  are  so  suited  that  there  is  no 
equally  good  expression  for  that  thought.  When  it 
is  translated  the  thing  itself  becomes  altered. 

Reading. — Rousseau  relates  how  cannily  he  would 
supply  Emile  with  a  motive  for  learning  to  read.  An 
invitation  comes  to  Emile  to  attend  a  party.  His 
tutor  reads  the  letter  half  through  for  him,  omitting 
the  date  and  other  important  details,  and  then  puts 
the  letter  down.  The  principle  is  right  enough,  for 
the  final  motive  to  all  reading  is  to  find  out  what 
some  one  has  said. 

As  for  method,  shall  reading  be  taught  beginning 
with  the  alphabet,  with  words,  with  sentences,  or 
even  with  whole  stories  ?  The  old  way,  of  teaching 
letters  first,  doubtless  had  back  of  it  the  belief  that 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING    253 

it  is  necessary  to  know  the  parts  before  one  can  know 
the  whole,  and  that  to  pass  from  letters  to  syllables 
and  thence  to  words  is  to  pass  from  the  simple  to  the 
complex.  But  reflection  shows  that  whereas  words, 
sentences,  and  stories  are  familiar  material  to  a  child 
of  six,  by  reason  of  his  use  of  spoken  language,  the 
alphabet  does  not  exist  for  any  of  us  except  as  an  ab- 
straction or  the  analyzed  elements  of  written  lan- 
guage. As  the  technical  tool  of  written  language  it 
has  no  intrinsic  meaning  for  a  young  child.  If  writ- 
ing is  to  be  taught  before  reading,  according  to 
Froebel's  suggestion,  or  even  at  the  same  time,  then, 
of  course,  the  alphabet  must  be  learned,  but  even  so, 
the  significance  of  the  letters  must  be  made  clear 
through  the  medium  of  larger  wholes. 

Experiments  have  revealed  that  in  the  reading  of  the 
adult  the  apprehension  of  words  and  of  sentences  is 
not  made  up  of  the  clear  apprehension  of  all  the  parts. 
Material  to  be  read  has  been  exposed  for  very  short 
durations  and  the  time  needed  for  the  reading  of  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  material  accurately  measured.  Cat- 
tell  ^*'  found  that  elements  which  are  combined  into 
familiar  wholes  are  more  quickly  read.  "  If  we  take 
words  which  do  not  make  sentences,  and  letters  which 
do  not  make  words,  the  time  needed  for  reading  them 
is  approximately  doubled."  It  is  easy  to  test  the  dis- 
tance at  which  different  types  of  material  can  be  read. 
Ask  some  one  to  read  for  you  the  following  lists. 


254  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Put  the  page  too  far  away  for  anything  to  he  made 
out,  and  gradually  hring  it  nearer.  Notice  the  kind  of 
things  which  are  read  first. 

xcnrai  mother 

Ipsdfo  person 

dmtuoa  summer 

dilnor  psychology 

ternax  compensation 

mutleb  amusement 

cat  Very  truly  yours 

lip  in  the  morning 

met  My  Country  'tis  of  Thee. 

It  is  certain  that  the  adult  who  reads  with  ordinary 
rapidity  relies  upon  some  peculiarity  of  the  words  and 
phrases  as  wholes,  such  as  general  shaj)e  or  dominant 
group  of  letters. 

Two  recent  papers  have  called  in  question  the  ad- 
visability of  teaching  children  to  read  orally,  or  at 
least  of  giving  so  much  time  to  this  exercise  as  has 
been  the  custom  in  the  past.  Pintner  ^*^  calls  attention 
to  the  fact,  confirmed  by  others,  that  the  rapid  reader 
is  usually  he  who  has  least  imagery  accompanying 
his  reading,  who  does  not  move  his  lips  while  reading, 
nor  wait  to  hear  the  words  internally  before  he  can  get 
their  meaning.  In  oral  reading  the  sound  and  the 
articulation  of  the  words  become  more  and  more 
firmly  associated  with  the  visual  aspect  of  them,  and 
hence  we  tend  to  fix  upon  the  pupil  a  habit  which 
will  slow  up  the  reading  process  for  him  when  he 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING    255 

comes  to  rend  silcntlv.  Piiitner  tested  children  in  the 
fourth  grade  by  askine;  them  to  read  as  much  as  pos- 
sible in  a  series  of  two-minnte  intervals.  Both  oral 
and  silent  reading  were  tried,  and  immediately  after 
each  selection  the  children  wrote  down  all  they  could 
remember.  The  average  number  of  lines  read  was  20 
for  the  oral  reading,  28  for  the  silent.  The  average 
number  of  points  remembered  was  15  for  the  oral, 
18  for  the  silent  reading.  Mead  *^*'  tried  similar 
tests  on  100  sixth-grade  children.  He  concludes  that 
a  greater  number  of  lines  can  be  read  silently  than 
orally,  and  that  a  larger  percentage  of  possible  points 
is  reproduced  by  the  silent  method.  These  results 
are  worthy  of  consideration,  since  for  most  adults  an 
improvement  in  their  habits  of  silent  reading  is 
more  useful  than  reading  aloud.  Yet  there  are  types 
of  material,  notably  poetry,  and  resonant  or  rhythmi- 
cal prose,  which  suffer  from  over-rapid  consumption. 
The  point  to  be  recognized  is  that  different  reading 
habits  go  with  different  material.  Also  the  teacher 
must  weigh  the  value  of  oral  reading  to  see  whether 
it  is  worth  the  price. 

Writing. — One  of  the  most  striking  results  of  the 
Montessori  method  has  been  its  success  in  teaching 
young  children  to  write.  By  a  happy  selection  of 
devices  these  children  are  able  to  isolate  the  motor 
patterns  of  the  letters  and  to  learn  them  before  taking 
a  pencil  in  their  hands.     The  tracing  of  the  sand- 


256  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

paper  letters  does  this.  (The  device  of  tracing  in 
grooved  letters  is  mentioned  by  Quintilian,  and  also 
by  John  Locke.)  Better  than  this,  however,  seem  the 
free  rhythmical  forward-moving  exercises  described 
by  the  Gesells,*^  movements  which  are  desigTied  to 
give  from  the  beginning  the  continuity  and  fluency 
which  the  penman  must  finally  attain. 

The  relation  of  accuracy  to  speed  is  a  question  of 
general  pedagogical  method  which  is  especially  well 
illustrated  in  the  writing  process.  It  is  sometimes 
assumed  that  there  is  an  inverse  ratio  between  accu- 
racy and  speed,  but  this  is  not  the  case.  The  work  of 
Woodworth  *^^  shows  that  in  the  form  of  test  which  he 
used,  the  movements  which  are  made  at  the  rate  of 
forty  per  minute  are  about  as  accurate  as  those  made 
at  the  rate  of  twenty  per  minute.  The  errors  increase 
with  higher  speeds  but  not  with  great  regularity. 
Thus,  120  per  minute  is  as  good  as  100  per  minute, 
and  changing  from  140  to  200  strokes  per  minute 
makes  very  little  change  in  accuracy.  I  have  found 
in  the  star-tracing  test  a  positive  correlation  between 
speed  and  accuracy.  For  104  subjects,  using  the 
rank  method  of  correlation,  q  =  .225  p.e.  =  .066. 
For  25  subjects,  by  the  Pearson  coefficient,  r  =  .303 
p.e.  =  .012.  The  implication  of  such  results  is  that 
it  is  wise  to  pay  some  attention  to  speed  in  the  child's 
writing  from  the  outset. 

The  motive  for  drill  in  penmanship  has  been  well 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING   257 

supplied  for  the  upper  grades  by  the  existence  of 
business  firms  which  undcu-take  to  grade  specimens  of 
handwriting  and  to  issue  certificates  for  a  specified 
degree  of  proficiency.  These  certificates,  e.g.,  the 
Palmer  and  the  Zaner,  have  a  commercial  value,  be- 
cause the  possession  of  them  counts  with  many  busi- 
ness houses  in  offering  positions  to  young  applicants. 
These  facts  are  known  to  the  students  and  form  an 
adequate  incentive  to  many  of  them  to  practise  their 
penmanship,  even  when  no  time  is  set  aside  for  it  on 
the  school  program.  ISTot  only  may  penmanshiji  be 
graded  by  such  agencies,  but  scales  are  now  available 
for  the  teacher.  Thorndike,  Ayres,  and  Freeman 
have  constructed  handwriting  scales  which  give  to 
teacher  and  pupil  an  objective  criterion  of  success  in 
this  branch  of  instruction. 

Literature. — Nothing  in  the  school  program  is  so 
important  and  nothing  requires  so  tactful  handling 
as  the  study  of  literature.  It  is  one  of  the  chief  in- 
struments in  forming  character,  since  here  the  child 
reads  of  the  great  deeds  and  dreams  of  the  past  and 
they  become  the  furniture  of  his  imagination.  Much 
freedom  for  the  child  and  much  letting  alone  by  the 
teacher  should  be  the  rule.  The  study  of  literature  is 
the  introduction  to  a  great  company;  the  child  be- 
comes the  companion  of  those  whose  souls  go  march- 
ing on,  and  they  speak  for  themselves. 

The  child's  enjoyment  of  literature  begins  w^ith 


258  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

his  earliest  years ;  stories  arc  the  breath  of  life  to 
him.  Any  subject  can  be  illuminated  for  a  child  if 
he  can  see  the  story  in  it.  Therefore  folk-tales,  myths, 
legends  form  very  rightly  the  first  curriculum.  As 
the  child  grows  older  it  is  not  enough  that  literature 
should  merely  be  liked,  for  this  is  purely  subjective, 
it  ought  also  to  be  appreciated.  An  acquaintance 
with  standards  and  reflection  upon  accepted  judg- 
ments of  excellence  are  a  means  to  cultivating  taste. 
An  examination  of  one's  likes  and  dislikes,  and  the 
attempt  to  explain  them,  is  part  of  the  progress  from 
the  capricious  preferences  of  the  untrained  mind  to 
the  finer  choice  of  the  man  of  sensibility. 

The  place  for  criticism,  dissection,  and  explana- 
tion is  in  connection  with  something  which  is  to 
be  done.  If  a  play  is  being  studied  for  the  sake  of 
acting  it,  or  a  piece  of  prose  for  the  sake  of  imitative 
composition,  there  is  a  reason  which  a  child  can 
understand  for  picking  things  to  pieces.  In  such 
connections  paraphrasing  and  re-writing  help  the 
child  to  understand  and  to  interpret,  but  in  general 
it  remains  true  that  criticism  and  explanations  of 
literary  works  should  be  used  with  restraint  by  the 
teacher. 

The  important  thing,  after  all,  is  to  build  up  in 
the  child's  mind  a  conscious  association  between 
having  a  good  time  and  reading  books.  Only  so 
are  we  likely  to  establish  a  habit  of  reading  which 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  259 

will  survive  the  pcn-iod  of  his  schooling.  No  matter 
how  systematic  and  thorough  the  course,  if  the  child 
comes  out  of  it  wearied  with  literature,  it  has  done 
him  an  ill  turn.  The  fact  is  that  accuracy  and  thor- 
oughness must  be  subordinated.  The  rigid  insistence 
on  the  accurate  rendering  of  every  passage  is  not 
wise.  Let  the  child,  if  he  wants  to,  choose  and  read 
what  is  beyond  his  comprehension.  It  is  the  instinct 
and  taste  to  choose  the  good,  not  accuracy  of  inter- 
pretation, which  is  the  chief  concern  in  the  study  of 
literature. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  TEACHING  OF  DRAWING 

Reasons  for  Teaching  Drawing. — Of  every  sub- 
ject ill  the  curriculum  we  have  to  ask,  what  are  the 
child  interests  and  the  adult  purposes  which  it 
serves.  First  then,  what  are  the  human  purposes 
which  are  promoted  by  skill  in  drawing?  (1)  The 
first  of  these  is  the  artist's  purpose,  namely,  the  pro- 
duction of  beauty  and  the  expression  of  his  esthetic 
feeling  so  that  others  may  share  it  with  him.  We 
realize  that  of  all  the  children  who  go  to  school  very 
few  will  emerge  as  artists,  but  it  is  worth  what  it 
costs  to  locate  and  to  help  that  few.  One  of  the 
chief  duties  of  the  art  teacher  is  to  this  minority. 
(2)  The  next  is  a  more  sophisticated  reason,  but  one 
which  is  probably  most  often  avowed  as  the  object  in 
teaching  art  to  all  children,  viz.,  to  give  appreciation 
of  art  and  of  beauty.  The  theory  back  of  this  is  that 
appreciation  is  enhanced  by  the  attempt  to  do  what 
the  artist  has  done, — that  some  idea  of  the  producer's 
standpoint  is  necessary  to  fullest  appreciation.  This 
has  been  alleged  as  a  reason  for  teaching  drawing  ever 
since  the  time  of  Aristotle.     (3)   Ability  to  draw  has 

260 


THE  TEACHING  OF  DRAWING  261 

uses  which  are  not  confined  to  artistic  matters.  It  is 
important  to  be  able  to  make  accurate  drawings  and 
clear  diagrams  for  scientific  and  practical  purposes 
as  well.  (4)  Training  in  visual  observation  may  be 
gained  by  practice  in  drawing,  though,  as  we  have 
seen,  this  need  not  mean  improvement  of  visual 
imagery. 

For  artistic  purposes,  and  for  practical  and  sci- 
entific purposes,  we  may,  then,  sum  up  the  aim  of  the 
teaching  of  drawing  as  this, — to  give  the  al)ility  to 
draw  what  you  see,  and  the  ability  to  see  what  you 
are  drawing,  i.e.,  the  capacity  to  express  and  to  ap- 
preciate and  realize  the  visible  world. 

Children's  Motives. — The  teacher's  reasons  for 
teaching  a  subject  are  not  the  same  as  the  child's 
motives  in  studying  it.  !Nor  can  you  supply  a  mo- 
tive by  telling  him  why  he  studies  the  subject.  I 
heard  a  drawing  master  begin  a  lesson  by  asking, 
"  Now,  why  do  we  study  drawing?  "'  "  To  train  the 
eye  and  hand !  "  shouted  the  boys  with  impudent 
promptness.  Needless  to  say,  to  train  the  eye  and 
hand  is  no  boy's  motive.  They  would  never  have 
thought  of  it  themselves.  But  there  are  genuine 
child  motives  to  which  drawing  does  appeal.  Burk  *'*'' 
has  distinguished  three  stages  in  the  development  of 
the  child's  interest  in  drawing.  First  there  is  a 
"  scribble  "  period  in  which  the  child  takes  pleasure 
merely  in  getting  action  from  a  pencil.     He  likes  to 


262  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

sit  at  a  table  as  grown  people  do  and  watch  himself 
make  marks  on  paper.  The  resemblance  of  his  work 
to  anything  is  a  minor  detail  at  this  time:  the  real 
fun  is  in  the  muscular  exercise,  the  imitative  plav, 
and  the  pleasure  of  being  the  cause  of  the  marks. 
Next  is  the  symbolic  stage  in  which  the  child  intends 
his  marks  to  mean  something.  His  drawing  is 
somewhat  like  the  picture-writing  of  primitive  men. 
This  scribble  period  and  symbolic  period  may  be 
called  the  common  source  of  drawing  and  of  writing. 
The  product  which  he  turns  out  becomes  conven- 
tionalized in  the  one  direction  into  the  arbitrary  sym- 
bols of  writing.  In  the  other  direction  it  is  subjected 
to  a  different  kind  of  criticism  and  gradually  de- 
velops into  representative  art.  The  transition  to  the 
third  or  adult  stage  of  drawing  activity  will  be  best 
understood  by  a  fuller  description  of  the  peculiarities 
of  this  middle  stage. 

Characteristics  of  Children's  Drawings. — The 
most  general  fault  of  children's  drawing  can  be  traced 
to  the  fact  that  they  draw  what  they  know  about  an 
object,  not  what  they  actually  see  from  any  given  point. 
They  draw  concepts  not  percepts.  This  is  shown  in 
many  ways,  as  where  the  two  opposite  gables  of  a 
house  are  represented  in  the  same  plane,  or  the  en- 
tire outline  of  a  human  figure  shows  through  the 
clothes,  or  the  full  eye  is  pictured  in  a  profile  face, 
or  all  four  legs  of  a  horse  are  equally  in  view,  or 


THE  TEACHING  OF  DRAWING  263 

the  five  fingers  of  the  liaiid  arc  given  the  same  degree 
of  publicity.  Many  such  mistakes  are  similar  to  the 
errors  of  primitive  artists.  The  child  shows  the 
same  tendency  in  drawing  which  we  noticed  in  his 
logic,  he  puts  down  items  from  his  experience  at  large 
instead  of  sticking  to  the  actually  present  data. 

Another  peculiarity  of  childish  art  is  its  lack  of 
proportion.  Various  items  of  a  picture  are  duly 
put  down,  but  their  relative  size,  position,  and  ar- 
rangement may  be  quite  disregarded.  This  confirms 
the  fact  noted  about  children's  observations  and  re- 
ports, namely,  that  in  the  enumerator  stage  they 
attend  to  separate  items  rather  than  to  a  unified 
whole.  Again,  that  part  of  an  object  which  is  more 
interesting  to  the  child  is  often  drawn  larger  than  it 
really  is.  The  human  head  is  usually  drawn  too 
large  for  the  body,  the  face  is  made  too  large  for 
the  head,  and  people  are  made  too  large  for  their 
houses. 

What  Models  Should  Children  Use?— Studies  of 
the  objects  which  children  draw  spontaneously  indi- 
cate that  human  beings  and  animals  head  the  list 
for  young  children.  Interest  in  flowers  and  in  land- 
scape develops  later,  while  the  love  of  drawing  from 
geometrical  models  beats  but  feebly,  if  at  all,  in  the 
human  breast.  This  order  of  interests  is  the  reverse 
of  that  order  of  exercises  which  the  traditional  art 
course  offered.     Burk,  in  the  above  quoted  essay  on 


264  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  psychological  versus  the  logical  order  in  drawing, 
points  out  that  the  straight  line,  the  circle,  the  ellipse, 
etc.,  which  are  mathematically  simpler  than  the  natu- 
ral forms,  have  been  given  to  the  student  first  under 
the  conviction  that  in  this  way  he  is  proceeding  from 
the  simple  to  the  complex.  But,  says  Burk,  the 
mathematically  simj3le  is  not  the  psychologically  sim- 
ple. That  is  simple  to  the  child  which  is  familiar, 
and  direct  in  its  ajDpeal  to  his  interests.  In  this  sense 
baseballs  are  simpler  than  spheres,  and  the  human 
figure  simpler  than  an  oblong.  By  all  means,  then, 
let  children  begin  with  the  human  figure.  The  so- 
called  "  motion  figures,"  as  in  the  Prang  method, 
give  the  human  figure  in  half  a  dozen  lines.  They 
lend  themselves  to  "  narrative  "  drawing  and  lead 
children  to  a  fluent  use  of  illustration.  Even  the 
classical  models  can  be  treated  in  the  same  way.  One 
day  I  distributed  pictures  of  famous  statues  to  a 
class  of  ten-year-old  children,  and  told  each  one  to 
represent  the  statue  she  had  by  not  more  than  four  or 
five  lines,  giving  only  the  lines  of  movement  or  pos- 
ture. "When  they  had  finished  they  set  the  pictures 
and  the  drawings  up  in  a  row,  and  the  class  decided 
which  statue  each  drawing  represented.  Most  of  the 
guesses  were  right. 

Some  writers  suggest  that  children  ought  always 
to  work  from  the  natural  object  as  a  model.  This 
mav  be  done  with  older  children  but  there  are  times 


THE  TEACHING  OF  DRAWING  265 

when  it  is  not  feasible  with  young  ones.  It  requires 
some  skill  to  analyze  out  of  a  natural  object  just  those 
lines  which  will  best  represent  it.  It  is  a  rather  com- 
plex piece  of  abstraction.  As  a  little  boy  said,  "  In 
drawing,  you  think  and  think  and  then  draw  round 
the  think."  It  is  permissible,  therefore,  to  allow  a 
child  to  draw  from  another  person's  sketch  and  even 
occasionally  to  trace  a  picture,  as  a  means  to  the 
realization  of  what  lines  give  results. 

Another  question  involving  the  use  of  models  has 
to  do  with  the  teaching  of  design.  The  usual  pro- 
cedure is  to  teach  representative  drawing  first,  and 
design  later.  Dow,^"  however,  recommends  begin- 
ning with  design.  It  is  entirely  feasible  to  keep  both 
these  aspects  of  drawing  before  the  child  from  the 
beginning  of  his  school  work.  Wherever  there  is 
expression,  Chubb  said  of  language,  there  is  com- 
position. ]^o  less  is  it  true  that  wherever  there  is 
pictorial  expression  there  is  design.  The  apprecia- 
tion of  children  for  abstract  form  is  illustrated  in 
the  following  simple  test,  which  was  given  as  a  class 
exercise. 

A  Test  on  the  Golden  Section. — The  children  in 
my  class  in  drawing  were  going  to  make  paper  folios 
in  which  to  paste  their  sketches.  In  order  to  see  what 
their  taste  would  be  in  the  matter  of  proportions, 
I  cut  out  five  rectangles  of  d liferent  proportions 
to  choose  from.      The  rectangles   all  had   the   same 


266  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

area,  81  square  inches,  and  the  five  ratios  were  as 
follows:  (A)  9/9,  (B)  9.5/8.5,  (C)  10.5/7.7, 
(D)  11.5/7,  (E)  13/6.2.  The  fourth  in  this  series 
is  the  golden  section,  i.e.,  a  proportion  in  which  the 
sum  of  the  two  sides  is  to  the  longer  as  the  longer  is 
to  the  shorter,  or  (a  +  b)  :  a  ::  a  :  b.  We  made 
a  game  of  the  exercise  by  appointing  tellers  and 
taking  a  secret  ballot  on  the  most  beautiful  propor- 
tion. Thus  each  child  gave  an  independent  judg- 
ment. There  were  fifteen  children  and  their  votes 
were  cast  as  follows:  for  (A)  the  square  4  votes;  for 
(B)  0  votes;  for  (C)  4  votes;  for  (D)  the  golden 
section  6  votes;  and  for  (E)  1  vote.  These  results 
are  in  accord  with  the  usual  course  of  adult  esthetic 
preferences,  in  which  the  golden  section  is  liked  best 
and  the  figure  which  just  misses  being  a  square  is 
liked  least. 

The  Drawing  Process. — With  the  expert  draughts- 
man the  seeing  of  a  line  and  the  feeling  of  reproduc- 
ing it  are  probably  a  unified  experience,  but  with 
the  novice  there  *must  be  conscious  attention  to  the 
product  which  is  desired,  and  conscious  attention  to 
the  process  of  drawing.  It  is  the  business  of  the 
teacher  to  help  the  student  to  analyze  both  these 
aspects  of  the  act.  The  analysis  of  the  model  pro- 
ceeds from  the  general  to  the  particular.  The  stu- 
dent must  think  first  of  the  size,  position,  and  orienta- 
tion of  his  picture  with  reference  to  the  paper,  and 


THE  TEACHING  OF  DRAWING  267 

this  is  a  new  idea  to  the  beginner,  who  is  nsiially  so 
absorbed  in  the  shape  before  him  that  he  forgets  that 
the  sheet  of  paper  is  a  part  of  his  whole  design.     It 
has  been  shown  experimentally  by  T.  V.  Moore  "  that 
a  person  may  have  a  definite  realization  of  a  shape 
which  has  been  exposed  withont  knowing  the  position 
it  was  in.     Next,  the  chief  line  of  motion  must  be 
observed  and  rendered,  and  the  general  masses  of  the 
fiffure.     He  must  learn  to  let  details  alone  until  the 
larse  relations  are  correct.     A  constant  criticism  of 
proportions  must  be  practised,  and  for  this  purpose 
the    student    is   taught    to    analyze    all    figures    into 
geometrical  areas.     He  must  see  his  model  in  terms 
of  triangles,  squares,  oblongs,  etc.,  and  then  check  up 
his  drawing  to  see  whether  the  same  triangles  and 
squares  appear  in  it.    By  thus  ignoring  the  meaning 
of  the  shape  and  reducing  it  to  pure  form,  i.e.,  to 
relations  of  lines  and  angles,  he  can  judge  it  more 
severely.    This  translation  of  the  model  into  geometri- 
cal concepts  is  an  example  of  that  making  of  equa- 
tions  or  translation   into  equivalents   which  is   the 
characteristic   of  the   thinking  process   everywhere. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  this  critical  picking 
apart  of  the  model  does  not  belong  in  the  first  naive 
illustrative  drawing  of  children  nor  to  the  final  skill 
of  the  experts.     It  is  an  intermediate  stage  in  learn- 
ing to  draw. 

It  is  also  ncccssarv  at  times  to  get  the  child's  atten- 


268  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

tion  away  from  the  model  and  to  center  it  upon  the 
idea  of  his  own  skill.  The  cultivation  of  large  free 
movements  and  of  good  form  in  handling  pencil  or 
brush  means  that  the  student  must  sometimes  be  care- 
less of  what  his  drawing  looks  like,  he  must  not  be 
afraid  of  spoiling  it.  This  is  not  easy  for  the  child 
who  has  become  interested  in  what  he  is  drawing. 
He  likes  the  work  of  his  own  hand.  A  child  once 
sketched  for  me  a  picture  of  the  Winged  Victory  but 
made  it  rather  like  a  windmill,  and  when  I  asked 
if  she  could  not  make  certain  changes,  she  eyed  it 
lovingly  and  exclaimed :  "  Oh,  I'm  afraid  I'll  ruin 
it !  "  It  is  hard  even  with  older  children  to^  get 
them  to  see  that  they  are  not  working  for  one  par- 
ticular picture  but  for  the  skill  to  make  a  dozen  such 
pictures. 

As  in  penmanship  so  in  drawing  the  question  of 
speed  should  be  considered  from  the  beginning.  At 
first  children  are  quick  enough  with  their  drawings 
because  they  pay  no  attention  to  the  model,  but  after 
they  come  into  the  critical  period  of  studying  the 
model  they  procrastinate  in  the  actual  process  of 
drawing.  The  teacher  has  to  contend  with  dawdling, 
continual  erasure,  and  over-scrupulous  hesitation. 
An  exercise  like  the  following  tends  to  hold  children's 
interest  and  to  correct  the  habit  of  slow  work.  Hold 
up  before  the  class  a  series  of  clear  outline  drawings, 
one  at  a  time.    After  an  exposure  of  say  half  a  min- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  DRAWING  269 

lite  take  each  picture  away  and  allow  one  minute  by 
the  stop-watch  for  a  reproduction.  In  this  Avay  a 
dozen  rapid  j^ractice  sketches  can  be  made  in  a  class 
period. 

Memory  Drawing. — The  work  of  Tadd/^" 
Seinig,"^  and  others  has  brought  into  vogue  the 
practice  of  drawing  from  memory.  The  cliild  is  ex- 
pected to  develop,  as  it  were,  a  repertory  of  figures 
which  he  can  draw  without  a  model.  This  is  advan- 
tageous in  at  least  three  ways.  In  the  first  place,  it 
gives  the  student  such  control  over  a  shape  that,  in 
Sargent's  j^hrasc,"^  he  can  play  with  it,  that  is,  he 
can  alter  it  at  will  and  work  it  over  into  various 
designs.  He  has,  so  to  speak,  a  vocabulary  of  typical 
shapes  at  his  command.  In  the  second  place,  this 
knowledge  of  type  forms  enables  the  observer  to  see 
new  individual  shapes  more  accurately.  He  notices 
the  ways  in  which  they  conform  to  or  diverge  from 
type.  In  the  third  place,  it  may  be  used  in  the  study 
of  classical  works  of  art.  Like  the  learning  of  literary 
masterpieces,  the  capacity  to  reproduce  salient  lines 
of  great  paintings  or  statues  enriches  imagination  and 
cultivates  taste. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ARITHMETIC 

"  The  most  devilish  thing,"  wrote  Marjorie  Flem- 
ing, "  is  8  times  8  and  7  times  7,  it  is  what  nature 
itself  can't  endure."  Kow,  if  children  do  not  like 
arithmetical  tables  we  must  find  out  the  reason  for 
that  dislike,  and  must  ask  whether  there  is  anything 
else  pertaining  to  numbers  which  thej  like  better. 
If  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  begins,  as  it  often  has, 
by  the  teacher  giving  out  the  tables  to  be  learned  by 
heart,  he  is  simply  passing  over  to  the  child  a  set  of 
ready-made  answers  to  questions  which  the  child  has 
never  asked.  The  tables  are  the  codified  results  of 
a  large  number  of  separate  problems.  Historically 
they  are  a  relatively  late  development.  We  must  start 
further  back  than  the  tables,  and  if  the  tables  arc  then 
gradually  made  and  arranged  by  the  child  himself, 
kept  as  a  record  of  his  own  achievements  in  arith- 
metic, they  will  have  for  him  all  the  charm  of  a 
personal  diary.  "What,  then,  is  the  earliest  natural 
interest  of  children  with  which  the  study  of  num- 
bers can  be  allied  ?     It  is  agreed  by  many  observers 

270 


ARITHMETIC  271 

that  the  habit  of  counting  is  a  normal  interest  and  a 
kind  of  plav  with  yonng  children. 

Counting. — "  To  count  a  group  of  things,"  says 
Schubert/^"  "  is  to  regard  the  things  as  the  same  in 
kind  and  to  associate  ordinally,  accurately,  and  singly 
with  them  other  things."  From  Maclellan  and 
Dewey  ^''^°  we  may  quote  the  following:  "The  idea 
of  number  is  not  impressed  upon  the  mind  by  objects. 
.  .  .  iSTumber  is  a  product  of  the  way  in  which  the 
mind  deals  with  objects  in  the  operation  of  making 
a  vague  whole  detinite."  And  also :  "  Number  is  not 
(psychologically)  got  from  things,  it  is  put  into 
them."  The  act  of  counting,  to  rephrase  it,  is  the 
imposition  of  one  series  of  things,  the  counters,  upon 
another  series  of  things,  the  counted.  Counting  is 
thus  a  kind  of  measuring.  Many  different  things 
hf.ve  been  used  historically  as  counters;  such  things 
as  pebbles,  sticks,  knots  in  a  rope,  or  notches  on  a 
stick.  The  fingers  enjoy  great  popularity,  but  most 
useful  of  all  for  civilized  man  is  the  series  of  num- 
ber names  "  one,  two,  three,  etc.,"  which  he  has 
developed  in  his  language  and  carries  in  his  head.  By 
means  of  these  and  of  the  written  symbols  by  which 
he  transcribes  them  he  has  enormously  extended  his 
power  of  enumeration.  The  civilized  child,  it  seems, 
inverts  the  experience  of  the  race  in  learning  to  count ; 
for  the  child  first  acquires  his  series  of  linguistic 
symbols  by  imitation  of  his  elders,  and  afterwards 


272  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

learns  to  apply  tliem  correctly  to  objects.  Phillips's  ^^^ 
interesting  article  gives  many  illustrations  of  this. 
The  number  series  is  learned  like  any  set  of  names, 
and  the  child  often  attaches  them,  like  proper  names, 
to  the  objects  with  which  he  first  heard  them.  Pres- 
ently, however,  the  child  learns  to  count  correctly 
and  it  is  an  occupation  which  he  pursues  sj^on- 
taneously.  "  The  moment,"  says  Phillips,  "any  series 
of  words  is  arranged  in  order  in  our  mind,  it  becomes 
a  counting  machine."  It  is  a  technique  which  the 
child  likes  to  exercise  upon  the  objects  around  him. 
The  record  of  his  researches  in  this  line  will  con- 
stitute his  tables.  Adding  and  subtracting  can  be 
thought  of  as  so  many  forward  or  backward  steps  in 
counting.  Multiplication  is  a  counting  by  groups, 
and  division  is  a  redistribution  into  groups  or  a 
"  counting  out  "  into  piles. 

The  Story  of  Numbers. — Children,  who  are  so 
easily  intrigued  by  stories  of  all  sorts,  will  readily 
listen  to  the  story  of  the  struggles  of  primitive  men 
with  numbers,  and  will  follow  with  interest  the  ac- 
count of  the  development  of  a  notation.  Smith  ^^^ 
says  that  the  history  of  arithmetic  is  the  best  single 
stimulus  to  good  method  in  teaching  arithmetic.  I 
tried  this  advice  by  telling  some  number  history  to 
a  class  of  ten-year-old  girls.  They  responded  by 
trying  to  imagine  their  way  out  of  various  predica- 
ments in  which  they  wanted  to  tell  one  another  "  how 


ARITHMETIC  273 

many  objects  were  missing  "  or  "  how  many  of  the 
enemy  were  coming,"  but  in  which  they  had  no  num- 
ber names  and  no  written  signs  to  do  it  with.  One 
child  said  that  primitive  men  must  have  been  pretty 
stupid  not  to  know  their  numbers,  but  another  turned 
on  her  and  said,  ''  Why  no,  nobody  knew  them.  It 
was-  like  Ab  and  his  friends,  they  had  to  invent 
everything."  These  children  were  interested  in  the 
way  some  Indian  tribes  managed,  as  Tylor^^^  gives 
it,  by  calling  ^'  twenty  "  a  "  whole  Indian,"  and  ex- 
pressing a  number  like  53  as  "  three  on  the  first  foot 
of  the  third  man."  This  kind  of  counting  offered  a 
simple  exercise  in  factoring  and  we  made  a  little 
game  of  it.  One  child  would  express  a  number  In- 
dian fashion  and  the  others  would  guess  the  number, 
and  vice  versa.  I  found  them  later  playing  this  game 
during  recess.  Again,  the  history  of  written  nota- 
tion is  an  excellent  introduction  to  the  study  of  deci- 
mals and  to  the  conception  of  place  values. 

The  Conception  of  Means  and  End. — In  arith- 
metic as  in  the  case  of  other  branches  we  must 
recognize  the  difference  between  the  purpose  which 
the  school  has  in  teaching  the  subject  and  the  pur- 
poses which  we  have  any  reason  to  expect  the  child  to 
feci.  If  arithmetic  is  to  seem  reasonable  and  sig- 
nificant to  a  child  it  must  be  felt  by  him  as  an  essen- 
tial instrument  to  some  end  which  he  desires.  There 
are  mathematical  prodigies,  of  course,  for  whom  the 


274  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

maniinilation  of  numbers  is  an  end  in  itself,  and  there 
are  certain  stages  in  which  any  average  child  can  find 
some  interest  in  numerical  relations  as  such,  but  the 
ordinary  child  will  not,  as  a  regular  thing,  busy  him- 
self with  numbers  except  as  they  help  in  some  enter- 
prise. Some  schools  associate  their  first  number  work 
with  the  measurements  necessary  in  making  objects  in 
wood,  as  boxes,  trays,  toy  furniture,  etc.,  or  in  paste- 
board, as  charts,  calendars,  etc.  Others  give  inci- 
dental instruction  in  connection  with  geography,  as 
in  looking  up  time-tables,  and  planning  journeys  to 
different  parts  of  the  country,  calculating  their  costs. 
Work  in  drawing  may  include  the  use  of  protractors 
and  the  estimation  of  angles.  Keeping  records  of 
their  own  physical  measurements  is  another  possi- 
bility. In  each  of  these  instances,  and  in  many  others 
which  good  schools  practise,  the  uses  of  arithmetic 
are  made  apparent  to  the  child. 

It  is  not  desirable,  nevertheless,  that  all  arithmetic 
should  be  taught  in  this  incidental  way.  A  separate 
time  for  bringing  together  all  these  uses  and  for  drill 
in  the  abstract  processes  is  needed.  The  arithmetic 
period  is  the  time  for  summarizing  the  numerical 
experiences  of  the  day,  and  the  time  for  examining 
and  perfecting  skill  in  the  operations. 

The  Use  of  Games. — Children  tend  to  connect 
numerical  facts,  like  all  other  facts,  with  the  particu- 
lar setting  in  which  they  were  learned.     A  group  of 


ARITHMETIC  275 

children  who  had  been  taught  in  arithmetic  the  num- 
ber of  degrees  in  a  circle  were  too  astonished  to 
answer  when  their  geography  teacher  asked  them  how 
many  degrees  in  a  circle.  That  wasn't  her  question, 
they  seemed  to  feel.  Also  the  language  in  which  a 
problem  is  expressed  is  a  most  important  matter. 
Unless  there  is  an  amount  of  variety  in  the  mode  of 
presenting  examples  the  child  will  tend  to  limit  his 
response  to  the  familiar  form  of  the  question.  He 
will  add  if  you  say  "  Add,"  but  not  if  you  say 
"  Plus  " ;  he  will  understand  "  Twice  nine,"  but  not 
"  Two  times  nine."  One  child,  who  was  able  per- 
fectly to  measure  the  top  of  her  desk  and  to  compute 
its  area,  was  completely  floored  by  the  question,  "  If 
the  top  of  your  desk  is  25  inches  long  and  18  inches 
wide,  what  is  its  area  ?  "  She  said,  "  But  it  says  if. 
I  don't  know  what  it  means  by  saying  if  your  desk  is 
that.  Does  it  meant  that  it  isn't  ?  "  Children  need, 
then,  to  have  their  numerical  facts  dissociated  from 
the  personal,  the  linguistic,  and  the  concrete  settings 
in  which  they  have  first  been  learned,  and  to  have 
their  attention  focused  upon  the  abstract  technique  of 
manipulating  numbers.  This  is  the  field  for  drill 
exercises  and  games. 

Many  games  involving  the  co-operation  of  a  group 
may  be  used.  For  instance,  the  games  in  which  a 
circle  of  children  play  with  a  pack  of  cards  on  which 
fractions  are  stenciled.    A  variation  of  this  is  to  have 


276  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

them  hang  the  cards  around  their  necks  and  march  in 
two  lines  towards  each  other,  adding  themselves  to- 
gether as  they  meet.  Playing  store  is  popular  in 
many  schools,  and  sometimes  playing  bank,  with  toy 
money  and  printed  checks.  Allowing  different  chil- 
dren to  be  "  teacher  "  and  to  give  oral  problems  is 
good.  The  various  magic  squares  have  a  fascination 
for  children.  Games  in  great  variety  are  to  be  found 
in  recent  text-books  in  arithmetic,  manuals  of  play, 
etc. 

A  few  important  points  must  be  kept  in  mind  by 
the  teacher  who  adopts  or  devises  such  games.  The 
first  is  that  the  games  should  really  interest  the 
child,  and  not  merely  be  tolerated  by  him  because 
the  teacher  is  anxious  to  amuse  him.  In  the  second 
place,  they  should  be  of  such  a  kind  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  hold  the  child's  attention  upon  the  arith- 
metical features  of  the  game,  and  not  allow  him  to 
become  absorbed  in  some  of  its  accidental  details. 
For  example,  in  playing  store,  some  young  merchants 
are  inclined  to  spend  all  their  time  in  gossiping  with 
customers  and  in  re-arranging  their  goods.  Games 
should  not  be  elaborately  staged,  nor  worked  out  too 
heavily.  An  imaginary  background  is  often  as  good 
as  a  real  one.  Moreover,  there  is  a  disadvantage  in 
changing  games  very  frequently.  Variation  of  back- 
ground is,  of  course,  the  chief  reason  for  introducing 
games;  we  want  the  eternal  verity  of  two  times  two 


ARITHMETIC  277 

to  shine  out  from  a  multitude  of  settings,  but  we 
must  give  the  background  a  chance  to  be  a  back- 
ground, and  not,  by  a  too  rapid  shifting  of  the  scenes, 
keep  the  child  forever  learning  how  to  play  new 
games.  Children  are  conservative,  and  are  content 
to  stick  to  old  games,  and  this  allows  their  attention 
to  be  centered  upon  the  number  combinations  them- 
selves.  If  our  analysis  of  play  was  correct,  the  essen- 
tial character  of  it  is  a  repetition  of  some  bit  of  skill 
which  has  been  attained.  There  is  a  desire  to  work 
it  in  various  connections,  and  this  is  the  drill  impulse. 
Some  Sample  Exercises.— It  is  perhaps  in  place 
here  to  present  a  few  examples  of  class  exercises 
which  I  have  tried  upon  a  group  of  girls,  and  to 
point  out  their  psychological  meaning. 

1.  A  guessing  game  involving  the  use  of  protrac- 
tors in  the  drawing  and  measuring  of  angles.  One 
child  goes  to  the  board  and  draws  an  angle  of  any 
size  she  likes.  The  others  all  estimate  the  size  and 
each  writes  down  on  paper  how  many  degrees  she 
judges  it  to  be.  Then  another  goes  up  and  measures 
the  angle,  and  tells  the  class,  so  that  each  may  enter 
in  a  separate  column  the  amount  of  error  in  her  esti- 
mate. After  the  children  have  taken  turns  putting 
on  angles  and  having  them  judged  and  measured,  each 
one  adds  up  her  column  of  errors  and  computes  her 
average.  This  settles  who  is  champion.  Taking 
sides  may  stimulate  a  keener  competition.     This  les- 


278  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

son,  then,  affords  some  practice  in  handling  the  pro- 
tractor, in  judging  angles  by  the  eye,  and  in  making 
simple  computations. 

2.  A  lesson  on  the  number  of  degrees  in  a  triangle. 
Triangles  of  various  sizes  and  shapes  are  chalked  on 
the  board,  and  different  children  are  called  upon  to 
measure  the  angles  and  to  list  on  the  board  the  num- 
ber of  degrees  for  each  triangle,  e.g.,  90,  40,  50,  for 
one ;  30,  70,  80,  for  another ;  60,  60,  60,  for  a  third, 
etc.  After  a  series  of  triangles  has  been  measured 
the  different  combinations  are  added  up.  When 
three  or  four  triangles  prove  to  have  180  degrees 
each  the  children  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  all  have 
the  same.  One  child  who  was  trying  this  felt  sure, 
however,  that  she  could  make  a  triangle  which  would 
contain  more  than  180  degrees,  and  she  kept  up  the 
struggle  for  some  time.  This  kind  of  hand-to-hand 
encounter  with  a  triangle,  trying  to  see  if  you  can 
force  more  degrees  into  it,  tends,  it  would  seem,  to 
give  a  child  a  more  vivid  conviction  about  the  proper- 
ties of  the  figure  than  the  more  formal  proof  of  this 
theorem  could  do. 

3.  A  drill  device  using  fractions  and  decimals. 
Sheets  of  squared  paper  are  given  to  the  children 
and  they  are  directed  to  rule  off  a  strip  containing, 
say,  five  rows  of  the  little  squares.  A  similar  strip 
is  drawn  on  the  board,  and  the  problem  is  presented 
as  shown  in  Fig.  22  no.  1.     Water-color  brushes  may 


ARITHMETIC  279 

be  used  to  work  with.  The  fraction  1/2  standing 
at  the  top  of  the  first  vertical  strip  at  the  left  means 
that  the  child  is  to  paint  one-half  of  the  vertical  strip, 


1 

2 

2 

5 

1 

5 

4 

10 

6 
10 

8 
20 

4 
20 

.4 

.2 

.4 

16 
80 

12 

SO 

15 
26 

1 
2 

2 
6 

1 
6 

4 
10 

2 
10 

8 
20 

4 

20 

.4 

.6 

.4. 

16 
8(* 

12 
80 

6 
2l 

1 
4 

1 

a 

2 

8 

6 
16 

^ 

g 

^ 

1 

r 

/ 

1 

g 

i 

15 

a 

s 

^§a 

6 
8 

3 
4 

10 
16 

2 
16 

i 

tr-^ 

i 

"= 

^ 

^ 

§ 

^ 

s 

a 

g 

^ 

i 

- 

i^i 

m 

1 

p 

f 

M 

1 

I 

i| 

I 

1 

n 

I 

■l 

_■ 

1 

lA 

^ 

fc 

li 

il 

1 

IV 


Fig.  22. 


painting  down  from  the  top.  The  1/2  standing  at 
the  bottom  of  the  first  vertical  strip  means  to  paint 
one-half  of  the  strip,  painting  np  from  the  bottom. 


280  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

111  the  case  of  this  first  pattern,  therefore,  the  two 
halves  are  to  be  painted.  In  the  second  vertical  strip 
the  directions  mean  that  the  child  must  paint  down 
two-fifths  of  the  strip,  or  two  of  the  small  squares,  and 
must  paint  up  two-fifths.  The  third  column  is  to 
be  painted  down  one-fifth  and  up  one-fifth.  In  the 
fourth  column  the  fraction  4/10  must  be  reduced  to 
fifths  before  the  example  can  be  solved.  In  some  of 
the  succeeding  columns  the  proportions  are  expressed 
in  decimals  which  must  be  reduced  to  other  frac- 
tional form.  The  directions  seem  at  first  somewhat 
elaborate,  but  they  are  readily  grasped  by  ten-year-old 
girls  and  this  exercise  was  asked  for  again  and  again 
by  the  children.  They  do  not  know  what  the  pattern 
is  to  be  until  they  have  solved  all  the  problems  cor- 
rectly. In  the  meantime  it  is  easy  for  a  teacher  to 
see  at  a  glance  how  far  each  one  is  getting  on  and 
whether  the  solutions  are  correct,  for  of  course  the 
pattern  will  be  wrong  if  the  answers  are  wrong.  The 
four  patterns  shown  in  Fig.  22  are  based  upon  dif- 
ferent denominators.  Xo.  2  has  seven  horizontal 
rows,  Xo.  3  has  twelve,  and  Xo.  4  has  eight.  At  the 
top  of  the  figure  is  shown  the  form  in  which  Xo.  1 
and  Xo.  4  were  presented  on  the  board.  In  this 
exercise  a  desire  to  see  how  the  pattern  comes  out 
seems  to  induce  rapid  work.  I  cannot  quote  exact 
statistics,  but  my  recollection  is  that  the  children,  in 
a  given  time,  performed  more  examples  in  this  way 


ARITHMETIC  281 

than  they  did  when  examples  were  simply  written 
out  to  be  done  as  examples. 

4.  Introducing  the  idea  of  proportion.  I  told 
the  class  the  legend  of  Thales,  how  he  went  to  Egypt 
and  the  Pharaoh  asked  him  to  measure  the  height  of  a 
pyramid.  At  this  point  one  child  drew  a  picture  of  a 
pyramid  on  the  board,  and  they  all  saw  that,  on  ac- 
count of  its  oblique  sides,  its  height  could  not  be 
measured  by  a  direct  method.  But  Thales,  the  story 
goes,  pointed  out  the  shadow  cast  by  the  pyramid  on 
the  sands.  Then  striking  into  the  ground  the  staif 
which  he  carried  in  his  hand,  he  said  to  Pharaoh,  "  As 
the  shadow  of  my  staff  is  to  the  staff  itself,  so  is  the 
shadow  of  the  pyramid  to  the  height  of  the  pyramid." 
When  the  children  had  heard  the  story,  they  went  out 
into  the  yard  and  measured  a  series  of  sticks  and  their 
shadows,  and  made  the  equations  for  testing  the  prin- 
ciple. 

5.  Keeping  curves  of  improvement.  On  four  days 
a  week  for  a  period  of  six  weeks  I  gave  to  a  class  a 
written  drill  in  the  four  operations.  Thus,  each 
Monday  papers  were  distributed  containing  printed 
examples  in  addition.  Five  minutes'  work  was  al- 
lowed on  them.  The  children  then  corrected  and 
graded  their  own  papers,  and  each  one  entered  her 
score  for  the  day  on  the  chart  which  she  kept  of  her 
own  progress.  I  then  collected  the  papers  and  veri- 
fied the  corrections.    The  percentages  of  improvement 


282  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

of  each  week  over  the  first  week  are  given  in  Table 
XVI.     The  curves  are  quite  different  for  the  dif- 

TABLE  XVI 


Addition 

Subtraction          Multiplication 

Division 

Av.         Increase 

Av.          Increase  Av.          Increase 

Av.          Increase 

Score        over  I. 

Score        over  I. 

Score       over  I. 

Score       over  I. 

I.  .. 

29.84 

53.77 

54.23 

27.38 

TT.     . 

33.92     13.6% 

58.38       8.5% 

60.69     11.9% 

40.15     46.6% 

Ill    . 

34.00     13.9 

59.61     10.8 

62.46     15.1 

41.69     52.2 

IV.   . 

35.38     18.5 

60.07     11.7 

72.69     34.0 

49.46     80.6 

V.   .. 

36.38     21.9 

73.66*  36.9 

72.30     33.3 

48.46     76.9 

VI.    . 

36.61*  22.6       67.25*  25.0 

81.46     50.2 

49.92     82.3 

Average  scores  of  13  eleven-year-old  girls  on  arithmetic  testa 
during  six  weeks. 

*  Indicates  average  of  only  12  individuals,  i.  e.,  one  child 
being  absent. 

ferent  operations,  multiplication  and  division  exhibit- 
ing much  greater  relative  change  than  addition  and 
subtraction.  The  individual  records  show  that  high 
rank  in  one  operation  is  not  always  associated  with 
high  rank  in  others.  (The  correlations  between  the 
different  operations  for  this  group  run  from  r  =  .46 
to  r  =  .75.)  This  exercise  has  several  pedagogical 
merits.  It  gives  an  objective  record  of  the  child's 
progress,  and  makes  that  record  plain  to  the  child 
himself.  It  thus  gives  him  a  means  of  knowing  how 
he  is  getting  on  which  is  not  dependent  on  the  word 
of  the  teacher.  And,  finally,  it  is  a  stimulus  to  him 
to  compete  with  his  own  past  achievements. 


10 


REFERENCES 

1.  Jean-Jaeques  Rousseau:   Emile,  Bk.   1. 

2.  John  Dewey:  Educational  Essays,  quoted  in  Rusk  (73), 

Introd. 

3.  VVilhelm  VVundt:  a.  Psycliologische  Studien,  3. 

6.  Outlines  of  Psychology. 

4.  William  Ellis:  Polynesian  Researches,  vol.  1,  p.  89. 

5.  John  Venn:  a.  Empirical  Logic,  p.  433. 

h.  Symbolic  Logic,  p.  5. 

6.  C.  B.  Davenport:  Health  and  Heredity,  being  ch.  3  in 

Rapeer   (7),  p    45. 

7.  Louis  Rapeer:  Educational  Hygiene,  p.  7. 

8.  C.  Roberts:  A  Manual  of  Anthropometry. 

9.  Franz    Boas:    cf.    F.    Burk:    Growth    of    Children    in 
Height  and  Weight.     Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  9. 

E.  A.  Kirkpatrick:   Fundamentals  of  Child  Study. 

11.  N.  Oppenheim:  The  Development  of  the  Child,  p.  15. 

12.  H.  H.  Donaldson:  The  Growth  of  the  Brain,  p.   105. 

13.  Ernst  Meumann:   Vorlesungen  zur  Einfiihrung  in  die 

experimentelle  Piidagogik,  vol.  1. 

14.  G.  B.  Mangold:  Problems  of  Child  Welfare,  p.  122. 

15.  C.   Wissler:    The   Correlation  of  Mental  and  Physical 

Traits.     Psy.  Rev.  Monogr.,  3. 

10.    G.  M.  Whipple:  Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests. 

17.  E.  Clapar&de:  Experimental  Pedagogj',  ch.  4. 

18.  C.    W.    Crampton:    Anatomical   or   Physiological   Age, 

etc.     Ped.  Sem.,  21. 

19.  Lewis  Terman:  a.  The  Hygiene  of  the  Child. 

h.  Genius  and  Stupidity.    Ped.  Sem.  13. 

20.  R.   B.   Bean:    The   Irruption   of   the   Teeth,   etc.     Ped. 

Sem.,  21. 

21.  W.   Taylor:    The  Physical   Examination  and  Training 

of  Children. 

22.  H.  R.  Marshall:  Instinct  and  Reason,  ch.  5. 

283 


284  REFERENCES 

23.  J.  R.  Angell:  a.  Psychology. 

6.  Report  on  Methods  for  the  Deter- 
mination of  Mental  Imagery. 
Psy.  Rev.  Monogr.,  13. 

c.  and  Pierce:  On  Attention.    Am.  Jour. 

Psy.,  4. 

d.  and  Moore :  Reaction  Time.    Psy.  Rev., 

24.  W.  Macdougall:  Social  Psychology. 

25.  E.  L.  Thorndike:   a.  Educational  Psychology   (smaller 

work) . 
6.  Educational    Psychology     (larger 
work ) . 

c.  Mental  Fatigue.     Psy.  Rev.,  7. 

d.  and  Woodworth :  The  Influence  of 

Improvement  in   Our  Mental 
Function,  etc.     Psy.   Rev.,  8. 

e.  The    Effect    of    Practice    in    the 

Case  of  a  Purely  Intellectual 
Function :  Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  20. 

26.  J.  B.  Watson:  Instinct,  in  Cyc.  of  Education. 

27.  W.  Preyer:  The  Mind  of  the  Child. 

28.  A.  G.  Noyes:  How  I  Kept  My  Baby  Well. 

29.  J.  M.  Andress:  An  Investigation  of  the  Sleep  of  Nor- 

mal School  Students.    Jour.  Ed.  Psy.,  2. 

30.  W.  H.  Howell:  Physiology,  Fig.  112. 

31.  C.  E.  Seashore:  a.  The  Mid-Day  Nap.    Jour.  Ed.  Psy.,  1. 

h.  Hearing  Ability  and  Discriminative 
Sensibility  for  Pitch.  Univ.  of 
Iowa  Studies,  2. 

c.  Suggestions    for    Tests    on    School 

Children.     Ed.  Rev.,  22. 

d.  Study  of  Illusions.    Iowa  Studies,  3. 

32.  Pieron:  La  Probleme  physiologique  du  Sommeil,  p.  37. 

33.  M.  Manaceine:    Sleep,   its  Physiology,  Pathology,  Hy- 

giene, and  Psychology,  p.  19. 

34.  Havelock  Ellis:  The  World  of  Dreams,  ch.  7. 

35.  Sigmund  Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  121. 

36.  E.  B.  Taylor:  a.  Early  History  of  Mankind,  p.  116. 

h.  Primitive  Culture,  ch.  7. 

37.  M.   Calkins:    a.  and   Fackenthal:    The   Emotional   Life 

of  Children.    Ped.  Sem  ,  3. 
h.  Association.    Psy.  Rev.  Mon.  Suppl.,  2. 

38.  G.  S.  Hall:  a.  A  Study  of  Fears.     Am   Jour.  Psy.,  8. 

h.  Adolescence,  vol.   1,  p.   133. 


REFERENCES  285 

39.  A.  Binet:  a.  La  Peur  chez  les  Enfants.    L'Annee  psy., 

1895. 

h.  The  Miiller-Lyer  Illusion.  Rev.  Phil., 
18!);). 

c.  The  Binet-Simon  Measuring  Scale  for  In- 
telligence. 

40.  W.  B.  Cannon:  Bodily  Changes  in  Pain,  Hunger,  Fear, 

and  Rage. 

41.  C.  Burk:  The  Collecting  Instinct.    Ped.  Sena.,  7. 

42.  Yrjo  Hirn:  The  Origins  of  Art. 

43.  Karl  Groos:  The  Play  of  Man. 

44.  F.    Burk:    a.  From    Fundamental    to    Accessory,    etc. 

Ped.  Sem.,  6. 
b.  The  Genetic  versus  the  Logical  Order  in 
Drawing.     Ped.  Sem.,  10. 

45.  W.    L.    Bryan:    a.  Development    of    Voluntary    Motor 

Ability.    Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  4. 
b.  and   Barter:    Studies   in   the  Tele- 
graphic Language.     Psy.  Rev., 
6. 

46.  J.  Hancock:   A  Preliminary  Study  of  Motor  Ability. 

Ped.  Sem.,  3. 

47.  C.  D.  Mead:  a.  The  Age  of  Walking  and  Talking,  etc. 

Ped.  Sem.,  20. 
6.  Silent  versus  Oral  Reading,  etc.    Jour. 
Ed.  Psy.,  6. 

48.  F.  W.  Smedley:  Chicago  School  Report,  vol.  46. 

49.  A.   L.   Gesell   and   B.   Gesell:    The   Normal  Child   and 

Primary  Education,  p.  93. 

50.  D.  B.  Major:  First  Steps  in  Mental  Growth. 

51.  J.  M.  Baldwin:  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and 

the  Race. 

52.  H.  B.  Woolley:  The  Development  of  Right-Handedness 

in  a  Normal  Infant.    Psy.  Rev.,  17. 
H.    B.    Thompson    (Woolley):    The    Mental    Traits    of 
Sex. 

53.  P.  B.  Ballard:   a.  Sinistrality  and  Speech.     Jour.  Ex. 

Ped.,  1. 

6.  Handiwork  as  an  Educational  Me- 
dium. 

c.  Obliviscence  and  Reminiscence.  Brit. 
Jour.  Psy.  Mon.,  1. 

54.  G.  M.  Gould:   Right-Handedness  and  Left-Handedness. 

55.  D.  Wilson;  The  Right  Hand:  Left-Handedness. 


286  REFERENCES 

56.  Salomon:  The  Theory  of  Sloyd. 

57.  K.    C.    Moore:    Comparative   Observations   on   the   De- 

velopment of  Movements.     Ped.  Sem.,  8. 

58.  G.  W.  Jacoby:   Child  Training  as  an  Exact  Science. 

59.  H.  Gutzmann:  Physiologie  der  Stimme. 

60.  H.    Dresslar:    The   Psychology'   of   Touch.      Am.    Jour. 

Psy.,  6. 

61.  J.  A.  Gilbert:  c.  Researches  upon  School  Children  and 

College  Students.    Univ.  of  Iowa 
Studies,  1. 
6.  Mental  and  Physical  Development  of 
School  Children.     Yale  Psy.  Stud- 
ies, 1. 

62.  V.  Henri:   Raumwahrnehmung. 

63.  M.  Shinn:  The  Biography  of  a  Baby. 

64.  M.  Heilig:  A  Child's  Vocabulary.     Ped.  Sem.,  20. 

65.  F.    O.   Smith:    The   Effect   of   Training   in   Pitch   Dis- 

crimination.    Psy.  Rev.  Monogr.,  69. 

66.  C.   W.   Valentine:    The   Colour  Perception  and  Colour 

Preferences,  etc.     Brit.  Jour.  Psy.,  4. 

67.  A.   W.  Tucker:   Observations  on  the  Colour  Vision  of 

School  Children.     Brit.  Jour.  Psy.,  4. 

68.  G.    Luckey:    Comparative    Observations    on    the    Indi- 

rect   Color    Range    of    Children,    etc.      Am.    Jour. 
Psy.,  6. 

69.  W.  H.   R.  Rivers:    Observations  on  the  Senses  of  the 

Todas.    Brit.  Jour.  Psy.,  I. 

70.  E.  White:  Visual  Perception  of  Interrupted  Distance. 

Univ.  of  Iowa  Studies,  1-3. 

71.  Ruttmann:  Psychologie  des  Zeichnens. 

72.  T.  V.  Moore:  A  Study  of  Abstraction.     Univ.  of  Calif. 

Pub.  in  Psy.,  vol.  1,  p.  131. 

73.  R.  Rusk:   Introduction  to  Experimental  Education. 

74.  M.   Hornibrook:    Time   Estimates  by  Children.     Univ. 

of  Iowa  Studies,  1. 

75.  C.  H.  Sears:   Studies  in  Rhythm.     Ped.  Sem.,  8. 

76.  H.  S.  Curtis:   Inhibition.     Ped.  Sem.,  6. 

77.  E.  S.  Thompson:  The  Deaf,  in  Cyc.  of  Education. 

78.  M.  Montessori:  The  Montessori  Method,  p.  260. 

79.  J.   H.   Bair:    The   Development  of  Voluntary   Control. 

Psy.   Rev.,  8. 

80.  E.  H.  Lindley:  A  Study  of  Puzzles.    Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  8. 


81. 

R. 

Woodworth 

82. 

E. 

J.  Swift:  M 

83. 

K. 

Gordon :    a. 

REFERENCES  287 

a.  Accuracy  of  Voluntary  Movement. 

Psy.  Rev.  Monogr.,  3. 
6.  and  Wells:  Association  Tests.     Psy. 
Rev.  Monogr.,   13. 
Mind  in  the  Making. 

Ueber  das  CedJichtniss  fiir  affectiv  be- 
stimmte  Eindriicke.  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Psy.,  f). 

b.  A  Study  of  an  Imagery  Test.    Jour,  of 

Phil.,  Psy.,  and  Sci.   Methods,   12. 

c.  series  of  articles  on  Feeling.     Jour,  of 

Phil.,     Psy.,     and     Sci.     Methods, 
2  and  3. 

d.  Meaning  in  Memory  and  in  Attention. 

Psy.  Rev.,  10. 

84.  W.  L.  Peters:  Gefiihl  und  Erinnerung.     Psy.  Arbeiten, 

6. 

85.  O.  Kiilpe:   a.  comments  following  83  a. 

b.  Outlines  of  Psychology. 

86.  F.  Galton:   Inquiry  into  Human  Faculty. 

87.  D.  Starch:  Experiments  in  Educational  Psychology. 

88.  G.  H.  Betts:  The  Distribution  and  Function  of  Mental 

Imagery.     Teachers  College  Series,  26. 

89.  M.  Fernald:   The  Diagnosis  of  Mental  Imagery.     Psy. 

Rev.  Monogr.,  14. 

90.  M.  F.  Washburn,  and  Adler  and  Williams:   The  Cor- 

relation between  Accuracy  of  the  Visual  Memory- 
after-image,  etc.     Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  25. 

91.  F.  E.  Bolton:  Principles  of  Education,  p.  467. 

92.  S.  Colvin:  The  Learning  Process,  pp.  111-14. 

93.  E.    O.    Finkenbinder:    The   Remembrance   of   Problems 

and  of  Their  Solutions.     Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  25. 

94.  E.  B.  Talbot:   An  Attempt  to  Train  the  Visual  Mem- 

ory.    Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  8. 

95.  W.  S.  Foster:  The  Effect  of  Practice  upon  Visualizing, 

etc.     Jour.  Ed.  Psy.,  2. 

96.  J.  Royce:   The  Psychology  of  Invention.     Psy.  Rev.,  5. 

97.  G.  V.  Dearborn:  A  Study  of  Imaginations.     Am.  Jour. 

Psy.,  9. 

98.  J.  Sully:  Studies  of  Childhood. 

99.  W.  Winch :   a    Children's  Perceptions. 

b.  Some  New  Reasoning  Tests,  etc.     Brit. 

Jour   Psy.,  7. 

c.  The     Vertical     Horizontal     Illusion     in 

School  Children.    Brit.  Jour.  Psy.,  2. 


288  REFERENCES 

100.  G.  Guidi:    Recherches  experimentales  sur  la  Suggesti- 

bilite.     Ar.  Psy.,  1908. 

101.  M.   H.   Small:    The    Suggestibility   of   Children.      Ped. 

Sem.,  4. 

102.  C.  Hitchcock:    The  Psychology  of  Expectation.     Psy. 

Rev.  Monogr  ,  5. 

103.  W.  V.  Bingham:   The  Use  of  Experiment  in  Teaching 

Educational  Psychology.     Jour.  Ed.  Psy.,  1. 

104.  W.   H.   Pyle:    a.  Retention   as   Related   to    Repetition. 

Jour.  Ed.  Psy.,  2. 
h.  The     Most     Economical     Unit,     etc. 
Jour.  Ed    Psy.,  2. 

105.  H.  Ebbinghaus:  On  Memory. 

106.  M.  Offner:   Das  Gediichtniss. 

107.  A.    Jost:    Die   Assoziationsfestigkeit,   etc.      Zeitsch.    f. 

Psy.  u.  Phys.  d.  Sinn.,  14. 

108.  N.  Perkins:   The  Value  of  Distributed  Repetitions  in 

Rote  Learning.     Brit.  Jour.  Psy.,  7. 

109.  Quintilian:  Institutes  of  Oratory. 

110.  E.  M.  Gamble:  Wellesley  College  Studies,  in  Psy.,  2. 

111.  M.  K.  Smith:  Rhythmus  und  Arbeit.     Phil.  Stud.,  16. 

112.  H.  F.  Adams:   A  Note  on  the  Effect  of   Rhythm  on 

Memory.     Psy.  Rev.,  22. 

113.  V.  A.  C.  Henmon:  The  Relation  between  Mode  of  Pres- 

entation and  Retention.     Psy.  Rev.,  19. 

114.  L.    Steffens:    Experimentelle   Beitrage   zur   Lehre   vom 

okonomischen  Lernen.  Zeitsch.  f.  Psy.  u.  Phys.  d. 
Sinn.,  22. 

115.  F.  N.  Freeman:   Experimental  Education. 

116.  J.  Jacobs:  Experiments  on  Prehension.     Mind,  12. 

117.  G.  Miiller  and  F.  Schumann:   Experimentelle  Beitrage 

z.  Untersuchungen  d.  Gediichtnisses.    Zeitsch.  Psy., 
6. 

118.  N.  Norsworthy:  The  Psychology  of  Mentally  Deficient 

Children. 

119.  L.  B.  Thompson:  Scientific  Management. 

120.  G.  Storring:  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  iiber  ein- 

fache  Schlussprozesse.     Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Psy.,  11. 

121.  M.   R.  Trabue:    Some  Results  of  a  Graded  Series  of 

Completion  Tests.     School  and  Society,  1. 

122.  H.  Eng:  Abstrakte  Begriff'e  im  Sprechen  u.  Denken  des 

Kindes. 


REFERENCES  289 

123.  H.  A.  Ruger:  The  Psychology  of  Efficiency.     Archives 

of  Psy. 

124.  J.  Hayes:  Three  Puzzle  Boxes.     Shown  at  Psy.  Assoc, 

1914. 

125.  C.  H.  Judd:   Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects,  p. 

402. 

126.  K.  Pearson:  Grammar  of  Science,  p.  7. 

127.  F.  Bennett:   Formal  Discipline. 

128.  F.  C.  Lewis:    A  Study  in  Formal   Discipline.     School 

Rev.,  13. 

129.  W.  C.  Bagley:   The  Educative  Process,  p.  208. 

130.  VV.    C.    Ruediger:     Indirect    Improvement    of    Mental 

Function  through  Ideals.     Ed.  Rev.,  1908. 

131.  J.  A.  Bergstrom:   Relation  of  the  Interference  to  the 

Practice  Effect  of  Association.     Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  5. 

132.  Warner  Brown:   Habit  Interference  in  Sorting  Cards. 

Univ.  of  Calif.     Pub.  in  Psy.,  1. 
133     A.  J.  Gates:  The  Cessation  of  Stimuli.    Univ.  of  Calif. 
Pub.  in  Psy.,  1916. 

134.  J.  C.  Fliigel:  Illusions  of  Reversible  Perspective.     Brit. 

Jour.  Psy.,  5. 

135.  W.  B.  Pillsbury:  a.  Attention. 

6.  The  Psychology  of  Reasoning. 
136     Piorkowski:   Beitrage  z.  psychologischen  Methodologie 

d.  wirthschaftlichen  Berufseignung. 
137.    F.  W.  Tracy:  The  Psychology  of  Childhood. 

138  J.   R.  Grant:   A  Child's  Vocabulary  and  its  Growth. 

Ped.  Sem.,  22. 

139  A.  D.  Snyder:  Notes  on  the  Talk  of  a  Two-and-a-half- 

Year-Old  Boy.     Ped.  Sem  ,  21. 

140.  D.  T.  Owen:  The  Teaching  of  Composition,  etc.     Jour. 

Ex.  Ped.,  3. 

141.  Perceval  Chubb:  The  Teaching  of  English. 

142     J.  M.   Cattell :   Ueber  die  Zeit  der   Erkennung  u.  Be- 
nennung  v.  Schriftzeichnen,  etc.     Phil.  Stud.,  2. 

143.  R.  Pintner :  Oral  and  Silent  Reading  of  Fourth  Grade 

Pupils.     Jour.  Ed.  Psy.,  4. 

144.  A.  W.  Dow:  Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching  Art. 

146.  J.  L.  Tadd:  New  Methods  in  Education. 

147.  O.  Seinig:  Gediichtniss  Zeichnen. 

148.  Walter    Sargent:    Fine    and    Industrial    Art    in    Ele- 

mentary Schools. 


290  REFERENCES 

149.  H.     Schubert:     Notion    and    Definition    of    Number. 

Monist.,  4. 

150.  A.  McClellan  and  J.  Dewey:  The  Psychology  of  Num- 

ber, p.  32. 

151.  D.  M.  Phillips:   Number  and  its  Application  Psycho- 

logically Considered.     Ped.  Sem.,  5. 

152.  D.  E.  Smith:  The  Teaching  of  Arithmetic. 


INDEX 


OF    SUBJECTS   AND    NAMES 


Abstraction,  a  part  of  reason- 
ing, 181 

Accessory  movements,  cf. 
fundamental,   58 

Adams,  H.   F.,   167 

Ambidexterity,   70f 

Analogy,   207 

Andress,   J.   M.,   37 

Angell,  J.  R.,  34,  128,  135, 
229,   230 

Aristotle,  260 

Arithmetic,  270f 

Association,  in  memory, 
157f;  controlled  associa- 
tion,  182f 

Atavistic   movements,   60 

Attention,  226f;  relation  to 
feeling,  233 

Auditory  sensation,  85f 

Ayres,  L.,  257 

Bagley,  W.  C,  22 
Bair,  J.  H.,  113,  114 
Baldwin,   J.   M.,   68,   88 
Ballard,    P.    B.,    69,    71,    74f, 

163 
Bayerthal,    26 
Bean,   R.   B.,   28 
Behavior,    32f.   80 
Bennett,   F.,   220 
Bergstrom,  J.  A.,  223 
Betts,    G.    H.,    131,    133,    140, 

143 
Binet,  A.,  48,   92,   186,   187 
Bingham,  W.   V.,   160 
Boas,  F.,   16,  25 
Bolton,   F.   E.,    133 
Breathing,   64f 
Brown,  W.,  223 
Bryan,  W.  L.,  59,  122,  124 


Burk,  C,  50,  51 

Burk,  F.,  58,  60,  261,  263-4 

Calkins,   M.   W.,  47,    165 
Cannon,  VV.  B.,  49 
Cattell,  J.   M.,   253 
Chubb,   P.,   246,   265 
Clapar&de,  E.,  25,   36 
Collecting  instinct,  49f 
Color,    perception    of,    88f 
Colored,       chart       test       for 
imagery,    137 ;    for    report, 
152;   circle  test,   193 
Colvin,  S.,  138,   148 
Crampton,   C.   W.,   26,   27,  29 
Curtis,  H.  S.,   103,   105 
Cutaneous   sensation,   81f 

Dalcroze,  J.,  97 

Dancing,  as  educative  means, 
66 

Davenport,   C.   B.,   13 

Dearborn,   G.   V.,   146 

Definition,  part  of  thinking, 
184f 

DeSanctis,   S.,   41 

Dewey,   J.,    5,    271 

Diagrams,  as  clarifying  rea- 
soning, 190f 

Donaldson,  H.  H.,  22 

Dow,  A.  W.,  265 

Drawing,  teaching  of,  260f 

Dreams,   40f 

Dresslar,  H.,  81,  83,  93 

Dunsany,  King  Argimenes 
quoted,   145 

Ebbinghaus,     H.,     162,     164, 

169,   207 
Edison,  T.,  116 


291 


292 


INDEX 


Educational  psychology,  pur- 
pose of,   1 

Ellis,  H.,  40,  42 

Emotion,  related  to  instinct, 
46;    feeling,  233f 

Eng,   H.,   208 

Experiment,  rules  for,  7 

Fackenthal,  47 

Fatigue,   43f 

Fear,  47f 

Feeling,    and    attention,    233; 

control   of,   236 
Fernald,    M.,    Ill,    131,    135, 

136,    140,    144 
Finkenbinder,  E.  0.,  140,  208 
Fliigel,  J.  C,  229 
Foster,    W.    S.,    143f 
Freeman,   F.   N.,    171 
Freud,  S.,  42,  126,  224 
Froebel,  F.,  54,  56,  98,  253 
Fundamental     vs.     accessory, 

58 

Galton,  F.,    129,   130,   141 
Gamble,   E.   M.,-  167 
Gates,  A.  I.,  227 
Gesell,  A.   L.,  and  Gesell,  B., 

67,   256 
Gilbert,  J.  A.,  82,  84,  87,  92, 

94,   154 
Golden  section,  test  on,  265 
Gould,  G.  M.,  69 
Grant,    J.    R.,    243 
Groos,  K.,  53,  54,  76,  98 
Growth,  curves  and  tables  of, 

15-22 
Guidi,  G.,   154 
Gutzmann,   H.,   77,   78 
Gymnastics,   45 

Hadley,   A.  T.,   220 

Hall,  G.  S.,  47,  48,  55,  61 

Hancock,  J.,  60,   103 

Hand  control,   66f;    eye-hand, 

75 
Harter,  N.,  122,  124 
Hastings,   73 
Hayes,  J.,    210 


Hegel,  G.,   182 
Heilig,  M.,  86 
Henmon,  V.  A.  C,  168 
Henri,  V.,  83 
Hirn,  Y.,  53 
Hitchcock,  C.,   156 
Hornibrook,  M.,  95 

Illusions,  92f 

Imagery,  127f ;  tests  of,  129f; 

theory  of,    139f;    can   it  be 

trained?,    143 
Imagination,    127f;    tests    of, 

146f 
Imitation,    learning   by,    107; 

of  models  in  English,  248; 

in  drawing,  263 
Inhibition,   103f 
Instincts,      enumeration      of, 

33f;  and  emotion,  46;  fear, 

47f;    collecting,    49f;    play, 

52f 
Interest,  related  to  attention, 

234 
Interference,  of  habits,  222 

Jacobs,  J.,  176 

Jacoby,  G.  W.,  76 

James,  H.,  235 

James,  W.,  105,  165,  182,  222 

Jevons,  S.,  117,  206 

Jones,   89 

Jost,  A.,  165 

Judd,  C.  H.,  220,  224 

Kirkpatrick,   E.   A.,    19,   34 
Kohlschiitter,  38 
Kraepelin,  E.,   130 
Kiilpe,  0.,   125,  234 

Language,  age  of  learning  to 
talk,  63;  the  pedagogy  of, 
240f 

Learning,  lOlf;  trial  and 
error,  106f;  imitation, 
107f;  curves  of,  118,  119, 
121;  pleasure  and  pain  in, 
125 

Lewis,   E.   H.,   221 


INDEX 


293 


Lindley,  E.  H.,  208,  214 

Locke,  J.,  256 

Logical  thought,  tests  of,  198- 
202;  genetic  view  of  fal- 
lacies, 203 

Luckey,  G.,  90,  91 

Macdougall,  R.,  35,  46 

McLellan,  A.,  271 

Major,  D.  B.,  67,   102 

Manaceine,   M.,   40,   41 

Mangold,  G.  B.,  24 

Manual  development,  66f 

Marble  statue  test,    177,    178 

Marshall,  H.  R.,  34 

Mead,  C.  D.,  63,  255 

Meaning,  in  memory,  169 

Measurement,  general  idea  of, 
9f 

Memory,  156f;  and  associa- 
tion, 157;  vocabulary  test, 
161;  meaning  in,  169; 
whole  and  part  memorizing, 
170;  growth  of,  176f;  in 
drawing,  269 

Meumann,  E.,  25,  84,  85,  86, 
88,  96,   131 

Montessori,   M.,   98,    113,   255 

Moore,  A.   W.,   230 

Moore,  K.  C,  75 

Moore,   T.   V.,  94,   267 

Mortality  curve,   16 

Movements,  general  character 
of,   101;    inhibition,   103 

Miiller,   G.   E.,    179 

Miiller-Lyer  illusion,  92 

Muscular  growth,  61f;  sensa- 
tions from  muscles,  84 

Norsworthy,   N.,    183 
Noyes,  A.  G.,  37 

Observation  and   report,   149f 

Oflfner,  M.,   165 

Oral  composition,  246 

Pearson,  K.,  220 
Perkins,  N.,  165 
Pestalozzi,   J.,    150 


Peters,  W.  L.,  125,  126 

Pfeiffer,    130 

Phillips,  D.  M.,  272 

Physiological  age,  26f 

Pierce,  A.  H.,  229 

Pieron,  H.,   39 

Pillsbury,  W.  B.,  232,  244 

Pintner,  R.,  254,  255 

Piorkowski,  233 

Plato,  56 

Play,  52f;  games  in  arithme- 
tic, 274f 

Pohlmann,  A.,   164,   176 

Preyer,  W.,  37,  65,  75,  76, 
81,  82,   85,   88,  213 

Pryor,  Rotch  and,  27 

Pyle,  W.  H.,  161,  170 

Quetelet,   61 

Quintilian,  56,   166,  256 

Radosavljevich,  P.,  163 

Rapeer,  L.,  15 

Reading,  teaching  of,  252 

Reason,  growth  of,  180f 

Reche,   23 

Reflexes,  32f 

Rhythm,    perception    of,    96f; 

in   memory,    167 
Right-  and  left-handedness, 

68f 
Rivers,  W.  H.  R.,  93 
Roberts,   C,   16,  20 
Rotch,  and  Pryor,  27 
Rousseau,   J.,   4,   252 
Royce,  J.,   146 
Ruediger,  W.  C,  221,  225 
Ruger,  H.  A.,  208 
Rusk,  R.,   138 
Ruttmann,  94 

Salomon,  75 
Sargent,   W.,   269 
Schiller,  F.,  52 
Schmid-Monnard,  23 
School,  theory  of,   4f 
Schubert,  H.,  271 
Schumann,    F.,    179 
Sears,  C.  H.,  96f 


294 


INDEX 


Seashore,    C.    E.,    39,    79,    86, 

87,   93 
Secor,   130 
Segal,   J.,    131 
Seinig,  O.,  99,  269 
Sensation,  growth  of  sensory 

capacities,  80f 
Shinn,  M.,  85 
Sleep,   36f 
Small,  M.  H.,  154 
Smedley,    F.,    65,   67,    73,   86, 

168,  176 
Smell,  85 

Smith,   D.   E.,   272 
Smith,  F.  O.,  87 
Smith,  M.  K.,  167 
Snyder,  A.   D.,  244 
Space  perception,   91f 
Spencer,   H.,   52 
Stanley,   H.,  47 
Starch,   D.,    130,    131,   146 
Star-tracing,  106,  107,  256 
Steffens,  L.,   170,   173 
Stern,  W.,  150,   151 
Starring,  G.,   191,   192,   197 
Suggestibility,  153f 
Sully,  J.,   147,   243 
Swift,  E.  J.,   124 
Syllogism,  a  study  of,  189f 

Tadd,  J.  L.,  269 
Talbot,  E.   B.,   143 
Taste,   85 
Taylor,  W.,  30 
Terman,  L.,  27,  37,  208 
Testimony,   of   children,    150 
Thorndike,   E.   L.,  35,  36,  44, 
124,   220,   224,   257 


Thompson,   E.    S.,    110 
Thompson,  L.  B.,   185 
Time,   perception  of,  95 
Trabue,   M.    R.,   208 
Tracy,  F.  W.,  243 
Transfer  of  training,  218f 
Tucker,   W.,   90 
Tylor,  E.   B.,  43,  273 

Valentine,  C.   W.,  89 
Venn,   J.,    10,    190 
Vierordt,   K.,   20,   22,   82 
Visual   sensation,   88f 
Vital  capacity,  64 
Vocation,     related     to     char- 
acter, 4,  5 
Voice  control,  76f 

Walking,  63f 

Washburn,  M.  F.,  132,  143 

Watson,  J.  B.,  35 

Wells,  F.  L.,   183 

Whipple,  G.  M.,  25,  68,  72, 
74,  83,  86,  99,  176,  229 

White,  E.,  93 

Will,  as  self-control,  237 

Wilson,   D.,   70 

Winch,  W.,  23,   151,   179,  200 

Wissler,   C,   25,   82 

Woodworth,  R.,   121   183,  256 

Woolley,  H.  B.  (H.  B.  Thomp- 
son ) ,  69,  89,  208 

Woolman,   J.,   251 

Work,  and  fatigue,  43f 

Writing,  teaching  of,   255 

Wundt,  W.,  7,  234 

Ziehen,  T.,  95 


000  028  798 


m 


m 


mm 


Mi 


li« 


■..Mm 

lis 


m 


mm 


